


A-Force: Project Recursion

by fanfics_she_wrote



Series: The Spider and his Superheroes [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, I love my chaotic A-Force, Peter does a very Tony move, hydra is a bitch, i am confusion, idk I don't know how personalities work, if you know what happens in this book, look I think I gave Sin a personality, pls let me know, supersoldiers, there is much confusion, they so dumb tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-07-24 00:50:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20017552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanfics_she_wrote/pseuds/fanfics_she_wrote
Summary: Following the survival against Sin's attack months ago, Anya and Morgan seem to be on a happy high -- despite Peter still refusing to let either girl officially join Sword. Though it lingers in the back of their minds that a hero's work is never done, they're all smiles and laughter. Much like the Avengers once did, the A-Force often comes together to spend time around each other -- without the looming threat of some type of evil.Things turn sour very quickly when Abigail Brand shows up uninvited to the doorstep of the only Sword employee she can trust right now. Peter may have to rethink his decisions regarding his sisters' involvement in the superhero gig when it's clear he needs their help.Hydra's back and they've taken their mission to space.It looks like the A-Force is going to space.





	1. Chapter 1

The wind whistled gently through the trees. It was a calm and serene night, filled with the sounds of birds and chatter. The air was warm, unlike most May nights in New York, and both the people and the animals took advantage of it.

In a fairly regular sized church in Queens, one with beautiful stained glass windows that tinted the inside a rainbow of colours, a ridiculous amount of superheroes came from all corners of the world -- and the universe -- to squash up together and cheer like uncivilised morons.

"To the newlyweds!" Thor cried, jumping up in the pews.

A thunderous cry of "to the newlyweds!" rippled through the church.

"Family photo!" Shuri called, "get in there!"

Anya and Morgan rushed up and pushed Peter and MJ even closer than they already were, while May dragged Bucky to stand between her and Pepper.

After that, everyone wanted a photo with the happy couple. Later that evening, once everyone had departed to one of the several hotels they'd completely booked out, Peter would complain, and MJ would think about knocking him out, because he was making her smile and she was tired of smiling too. Instead, she would just smile and remind him that they're his family. And Peter would wrap his arms around her and remind her that they're her family too.

* * *

Nicole hiccupped. "I wanna get married too. I'm turning twenty-six in September."

"Shut up," Harley muttered, "I'm thirty-two. How do you think I feel?"

"Listen, loser, if I hadn't been -- what was Peter calling it a few years ago? The blip? -- if I hadn't been blipped, I'd be thirty. You're not special. Besides, this is all your fault," Nicole finished, glaring at the girl sharing the single sofa with her.

"My fault?" Cassie echoed, "what did _I_ do?"

"Well, you did break up with me," Harley said, shrugging.

"To Nic," Cassie clarified.

"Nothing," Nicole said, "I just like Shuri too much fo blame _her_."

Shuri, the only one still fully sober, sighed and rolled her eyes. "I suppose I'm driving you two back to our hotel, hm?"

* * *

"He's all grown up! My baby boy is leaving me! I'm just so proud of him. Did you see how handsome he looks in all the photos? I'm never gonna see him again!"

Bucky sighed. "I have to live with this," he said, glancing at the woman using his shirt to dry her eyes by repeatedly knocking her head into his shoulder.

Sam smirked. "Man, that was a choice you made all those years ago. You don't _have_ to do anything. But I'm glad you stay. I love laughing at your misfortunes."

Bucky narrowed his eyes. "Do not make me turn my son's wedding day into the day of your death."

Sam only laughed. "I'm gonna head back to the bar. Want something?"

"A replacement. Fetch Rhodes."

Sam nodded and left.

"She still swinging from ecstatic to depressed?" Carol asked, sitting down on the adjacent couch.

"Like a pendulum on steroids."

Okoye sat down beside Carol. "Give us a smile, Rescue."

"I'm _SAD_ ," Pepper snapped, hiding her face behind Bucky's shoulder.

"And my shoulder is covered in eyeliner. May's not even being this dramatic!"

"That's 'cause she's drunk."

Sure enough, when Bucky looked around and found her, May was flirting with her reflection. "We should get her a boyfriend," Bucky mused.

"We are old and have two teenagers to manage. We don't have time for boyfriends."

"Says you."

"Barnes," Rhodey said as he sat down on the other side of Pepper, "your hero is here."

"Thanks," Bucky said dryly, gently pushing Pepper towards Rhodey, "I'm gonna take May to her room before she passes out here."

"No boyfriend hunting," Pepper warned, "I need both my co-parents focused on the girls. Morgan tried -- and failed -- to hide a can of beer from me last night and I honestly don't know who's most to blame for that."

"You guys know she's dating Happy, right?" Carol asked, swirling the contents of her champagne glass as she leaned back casually. She was most amused to see the looks on Bucky and Pepper's faces.

"So," Okoye said to Pepper, "you've officially reached a new level. How does it feel to be a mother-in-law?" 

"No changes so far."

"That's 'cause Peter's still gonna be in your face every second day," Rhodey said.

"Not for the next two weeks, if I'm correct," Carol said, "MJ mentioned that they'll be honeymooning at a private resort in the Maldives. You can only reach them by letter, because he's turning off all his devices to avoid Sword responsibilities."

Pepper narrowed her eyes at Carol. "You are _not_ helping my mood."

Okoye smiled. "You'll be fine. It's just two weeks. Give them a little space."

Pepper huffed and let Rhodey baby her through her tantrum.

* * *

"More drinks!" Brunnhilde shouted, raising a bottle.

"Yeah!" Thor cheered, holding his glass out for some.

"Buddy, don't you think you've had en--"

"Shhhhhh," Brunnhilde said, putting her finger to her lips and leaning towards Bruce. She was lucky she was standing on the table, or she wouldn't actually be able to reach his virescent face.

"You can never have too many drinks," Rocket said from Brunnhilde's head. "Hey, Quill, can you do this?"

Quill watched Rocket curl up.

"Fancy hat," Thor explained.

Quill glanced at Drax. "Shut up," the muscled alien said, turning away and striking up a conversation with Nebula.

"Oh, come on, dude!"

"I can be of assistance," Mantis said excitedly.

"Ya really can't," Quill said, giving her a smile.

"I am Groot."

"This guy gets it!" Rocket said, now sitting up again.

"The real question is," Bruce said, "can _Quill_ wear Rocket?"

"I can!"

"You look like an idiot," Nebula said from her chair at the end of the bar.

"You've done this before?" Brunnhilde asked, glancing up.

"Multiple times," Thor said, "I wear the sweet rabbit best."

" _I_ am Groot."

Rocket laughed. "Groot's right, _he_ wears the Rocket-hat best, including Professor Hulk over here, who looked like a dying leaf."

"I am Groot," Bruce mocked, making funny faces.

" _I am Groot_!" Groot cried, leaning away from Bruce and covering his mouth with both hands.

"Say sorry," Thor said, "you've offended him."

"Honestly, Bruce," Nebula said, "watch your tongue. Even I know that was uncalled for."

Brunnhilde watched in amusement as they mocked Bruce for not understanding the sentient tree. Eventually, Thor caved and told Bruce that Groot was simply mocking him back.

"I hate space people," Bruce sighed, "except you, Mantis, you're cool."

"Thank you!" she said, beaming, "would you like a drink?"

"How many have you had?" Bruce asked, concerned.

"Too many," Nebula answerd for Mantis, standing up and taking Mantis' hand. "I'll take her to her room."

"You're in a good mood today, Nebula! That's amazing!"

"Surprisingly. I hate weddings."

Mantis nodded. "Oh, yes. You were _radiating_ negative emotions during the ceremony."

"Okay, insect, time to shut up and walk."

Nebula steered Mantis away, a firm grip on her shoulders so she didn't lose Mantis among the crowd, leaving the others to stray back to talking about the wedding.

* * *

"So, when are you two getting married?" MJ asked, gesturing to the bouquet Betty had caught.

"Oh, we broke up," Ned said with an apologetic grin.

" _Again_?" Peter asked, raising his eyebrows. "When did this happen?"

"Last week," Betty replied.

MJ watched Betty twirl the bouquet in her hands. "Okay, when are you getting back together?"

"I give it four more weeks," Flash said.

"No way," Liz said, "I say four more _days_."

"Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets," Peter said, holding out what looked like an empty fishbowl.

"Where did you get that?" MJ asked.

"I've been holding it for at least half an hour. I don't know."

Ner shrugged when MJ glanced his way. "Look, you chose to be with him for the rest of your life. I can't help you."

"Shut up," Peter grumbled, shoving the fishbowl at Ned. "I'm calling it at two weeks."

"Three and a half days," MJ said.

"What are we betting?" Liz asked.

"Five dollars," Flash said, "I can't afford anything more on the duration of their relationship and their breaks."

"Five dollars it is," Peter said.

"I hate you guys," Betty said.

(Four days later, Liz was fifteen dollars richer.)

* * *

"You're seriously turning your phone off?" May asked.

"Seriously. I refuse to take any work calls for the next two weeks. Relax, MJ's keeping hers on. Call us there. Or we'll call you."

Pepper pouted. "Come back safe okay?"

"It's a private holiday resort, Pep," Bucky said, "exactly how much trouble can you get into?"

"A lot if you know which buttons to push," Morgan said.

Peter ruffled her hair and leaned down for her to kiss his cheek before pulling Anya into a hug. "I'll be fine," he said again as MJ returned from greeting their friends. He slipped an arm around her. "I have my bodyguard with me," he joked.

MJ rolled her eyes. "All done?"

"Mhm."

They stood and waved until Peter and MJ could no longer see them, then they all turned to leave the airport.

Harley hung an arm over each sister's shoulders. "I have the key to their apartment. Who wants to help me set up a horrible welcome back present?"

"Me!" they both cried.

"Neither of you are trashing their apartment," Bucky said, pinching Harley's cheek, "some adult you are."

"I saw you throw a waffle into a blender last week," Harley said flatly.

"Shut up, kid."

"I'm thirty-two."

"Oh, baby, don't go there," May said, but she was just a second too late.

"I'm a hundred AND EIGHTEEN!" Bucky cried.

Anya and Morgan not-so-gently pushed him to the car while May shot apologetic smiles at strangers and Pepper tried to shush Bucky.

Harley tried to argue.

"Ann, when you graduate and get a job, can we move out?"

Despite the fact that both knew they'd stay as close to their parents and brothers as possible for as long as they could, Anya agreed.

* * *

"What do you mean not available at present?! Redial! Where's the redial button?!"

The middle-aged analyst hesitated when he saw the young woman angrily yell at the device in her hand.

"Director--"

"WHAT?" She rounded on him harshly, startling him.

"Er . . . the security footage you requested is corrupt and could take days --"

"Forget that. I don't want it anymore. I'm going away on business. If I find a single thing out of place when I get back, you'll be answerable."

"Yes, Director," he said, doing his bets to to let her see that she had intimidated him -- although she knew she had when she first saw him in her office.

"Good. Now go and get someone to prepare my ship. I want to leave within the hour."

* * *

"Director," a young agent said as her hologram popped up over the desk, "call for you on line three. Secure connection will activate when you pick up."

"Thank you."

The hologram vanished.

"Where the hell is Parker?"

"Honeymoon," Maria replied, "and hello to you too, Director Brand."

"I _need_ to speak to Peter."

"It can wait. He'll be back in a week and a half."

"No, it can't," Abigail said, "I'm on my way down. If you can't bring Peter to Sword, get me to him. I'll see you in four hours."

"Four hours?"

"By your clock, obviously."

"Obviously," Maria muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Director Hill, this is a serious issue. I need Agent Parker alone. I can't trust anyone else."

"Abby, I'm not letting you crash his honeymoon. Give the guy a break. I know several agents that are more than capable. What about someone off the A-Force?"

"Peter Parker. No compromise."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooooooo what could the problem be?? 0_0
> 
> ..idk why I did that. I told you what the problem was in the last book. 
> 
> Look, Abigail is actually going to have a role in this book! And Sin is coming back! Who do you think the new character is? 
> 
> Hint: she's coming back as the daughter of a certain MCU character
> 
> idk why I said that was a hint. its not. its a little fact. im sorry im very excited about a potential series. i am running on very little sleep. pls send ur resident gremlin author some good vibes pls


	2. Chapter 2

"MJ, it could be the pizza!"

"Who even orders pizza on a honeymoon?" MJ asked, refusing to let go of Peter.

"Baby, _you_ ordered it."

"Yeah, well, I want you more."

"You were starving five seconds ago. I'll just grab the pizza and I'll be right back. You won't have to keep it paused too long. I promise."

"You have three minutes or I'm watching the season finale without you."

Peter kissed her forehead and stood up. "And don't hide my blanket!"

"If I do hide it, though," MJ said to herself, "then he'll _have_ to share mine."

Peter rolled his eyes as he left, walking to the front door. MJ had been steadily growing more child-like with each day. It was endearing, although he found himself waiting to return to New York and watch her yell "boh" at unsuspecting strangers.

He was still grinning when he opened the door to see a woman his height on the front step. He looked around, noting the lack of a vehicle or pizza boxes. "Where's the food?"

"The what?"

"The food. We ordered food." He studied her, noticing something off about her chestnut hair.

"I need to discuss something important with you. Business, of course."

"I clearly stated that I was taking these two weeks off months ago. Who sent you?"

"I needed to see you face to face as soon as possible. It's unsafe to discuss the matter over a telephone or even out here. This is more confidential than any Sword -- or Shield, for that matter -- issue you have ever previously dealt with."

With a resigned sigh, Peter stepped to the side and allowed her in.

"Who are you, anyway? I've never seen you before."

"Peter?" MJ called, "is it the pizza?"

"No. Remind me to give Hill the cold shoulder when we get back."

MJ stood up and walked into the main foyer. "Why?"

"She sent work," Peter grumbled, gesturing to the woman admiring the flower vase in the centre of the table.

"I've never seen you before," MJ said, "I've met all the agents Peter works with. You new?"

The woman darted her dark brown eyes to MJ.

"She's staying," Peter said firmly, grabbing hold of MJ's hand.

"That's risky, Agent Parker."

"I'd rather my family know everything than worry I'm keeping secrets. Besides, MJ knows how to use a blaster."

MJ smiled proudly, as she always did whenever she added a new weapon skill to her list.

"All right then. Director Hill didn't send me," the woman said, popping out her contact lenses. "No one sent me, actually. I sought you out."

MJ's fingers twitched as she edged closer to the small table -- more importantly, to the hidden shotgun whose holster was nailed to the underside.

When the woman raised her arm, MJ grabbed the gun and aimed it at her. No way was anyone attacking and ruining her honeymoon -- not if she could nip it in the bud early on.

"Relax," the woman said, emerald eyes twinkling as she pulled her wig off.

"I thought there was something off," Peter murmured, gently lowering MJ's weapon. "How'd you find me, Abigail?"

"Director Hill gave you away," she said, shaking her green hair out from the wig cap. "She had to, I threatened her."

"Pete?"

"Oh! MJ, this is Director Brand, she works -- and usually stays -- up at the Peak. She manages all inter-galactic threats to Earth. She and Hill usually work _together_. Abigail, this is Michelle Jones-Parker, my wife."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you," Abigail said, "Peter talks very highly of you."

"Likewise," MJ said, reluctantly putting the gun back.

Peter visibly relaxed. Despite being trained to use it and worse, Peter still found himself antsy around them and hated using them if he could help it.

"So, any particular reason you interrupted my honeymoon?"

"Hydra."

"Hydra," Peter repeated, folding his arms, "I'm not following."

"Sin stirred up quite a bit of trouble before vanishing in December. Under our noses, Hydra slowly slithered back together and I suspect they're planning a takeover."

"How do you know?" MJ asked.

Abigail handed Peter a folder. He leaned towards MJ as he opening it, both looking through the photos.

"Several times since Sin, I've caught these on walls in areas the agents usually don't frequent. Pulling a few strings, I got eyes in the other Peak departments and so far, they haven't seen these symbols and their little motto. It's just the department managing Earth. Hill's on a hunt through Sword Earth as we speak, but I don't think Hydra's infiltrated that much of your HQ as yet. Your security is tight."

"What I want to know is how Hydra got to the Peak," MJ said, "I mean, what kind of security does a space intelligence organisation have?"

"Could be via prisoners," Abigail said. "I haven't conducted any investigations as yet. If Hydra had known I was getting suspicious, it's likely I wouldn't have found a way off the Peak -- and I wouldn't have been able to warn Maria. Peter, I need you and your team. I don't know which agents are Hydra and which are Sword. I know I can trust you and I know you trust your team. Hydra's an old enemy that's died and come back far too many times."

"I've never fought Hydra," Peter said, "the closest I ever came was Sin, and she's not even Hydra anymore. We don't know what she is, but it's not Hydra. I don't know if I'm the person you need."

"Then get me to someone who is. I'm not losing Sword to a terrorist group."

Peter glanced at MJ, who sighed. "Well, it was fun while it lasted. Shall I start packing the backs?"

"You owe me," Peter told Abigail, handing the folder back, "big time."

* * *

"You gotta be shitting me, Pete."

"I'm not."

"I'm retired!"

"And I'm inexperienced for this. You've done it before."

"Yeah, like twenty years ago."

"Come on, man, I need help."

"Fine. But you're gonna need a hell of a lot more than an old man with carbon-fibre wings to take down Hydra."

"I need the guidance more than I need the muscle."

* * *

" _Again_?!"

"Yeah. Look, you've crushed several Hydra bases. You know more or less how they work. You can help us figure out how to get inside."

"So . . . you don't want me to go full green?"

"Well, I mean if you can it'll be great. We could use superhuman strength. But more importantly, I need people who know what Hydra has been capable of in the past."

"All right, Peter. I'll be at the tower in three days."

"Thank you."

* * *

"Can I just say, I love your hair. I was thinking of going a wild colour, like purple or something, but I'm not sure the colour will catch without bleach and I really don't wanna -- oof!"

Nicole threw Cassie a glare for nudging her so hard.

"It's all natural," Abigail said, "but we're not here to discuss my hair. We have bigger problems to deal with, ladies. Anyone know how to get hold of Captain Marvel? We could use her when we raid the Peak."

"Woah woah woah," Sam said, "you can't just go up there and raid the place."

"Why not?"

"Hydra's a terrorist organisation," Bucky said, "or at least, that's what it started as. They plan things and they plan for failure. If you storm the place, you'll more than likely lose enemies and Hydra will rise up again."

"You know who really knows a new-Hydra base well?" Bruce asked, "Wanda."

Peter shook his head. "Unavailable."

"She was seen in Hawaii three days ago, redirecting a volcanic eruption," Maria said, "we won't be seeing or hearing from her in a long time. She's completely off the grid and unless she wants to, we can't get in touch with her at all."

"Wasn't she here for the wedding?" Pepper asked.

"She was actually on the news that day," Peter said, shaking his head, "earthquake in the Anatolian peninsula. She called before MJ and I left for the Maldives."

"Okay, no Wanda," Bruce said, shrugging. "Fact is, Director Brand, you just don't storm Hydra."

"Steve Rogers did it in the forties," Abigail said.

"Yeah, and look how that turned out," Shuri said, "Hydra's still here, ninety years later, so _clearly_ , it didn't work too well."

Peter smiled proudly, offering Abigail a shrug when she turned to him.

"Fine," Abigail said, "then what _do_ we do?"

"We need someone who can get inside," Sam said, "someone unsuspecting. An agent of yours, Maria?"

"Too risky," Maria said, "Sword's database is thorough. They'd do background, lifestyle and personality checks. One of mine randomly claiming to be Hydra would be suspicious -- regardless of how good an agent I send."

"Then we need someone from the outside," Cassie said.

"We are _not_ bringing civilians into this mess," Bucky said.

"No! I would never! No, I wasn't thinking about a civilian."

Nicole glanced at her. "No. No no no no _no_."

"What?" Abigail asked.

"Do you have a better idea?" Cassie asked Nicole.

Shuri turned to the pair. "No! You're not being serious, are you?"

"I've never been more serious," Cassie said, "Pete, you _know_ it's the best shot we have."

All eyes fell on Peter, who was frowning at the floor.

"Who are you talking about?" Sam asked.

"Wait," Pepper said, turning to the girls. Bucky beat her to it. "That's too big a risk."

"What are you talking about?" Bruce asked.

"They're talking about Sin," Brunnhilde said, "she could probably get into Hydra undetected and unquestioned."

"She could also fall back under," Bucky said, "you can't throw her into Hydra."

"What choice do we have, dad? Hydra is up there and if we don't do something about it, they're going to be firing Sword's nuclear weapons at us."

"We could at least ask her," Cassie said.

"How are we supposed to find her?" Nicole asked, "she disappeared."

"Who's Sin?"

"Sinthea Schmidt," Abigail told Bruce and Sam, "born in the twenties."

Neither chose to question it. They'd seen weirder things.

"Okay, so how do we find her?" Sam asked.

"Sin doesn't want to be found," Maria said, "ever since the attack, we've been trying to find her, trace her maybe, but nothing."

"Do we know someone who can find her?" Bruce asked.

"Shit," Peter whispered to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What?" Sam asked, "who?"

"Probably Morgan and Anya."

" _Shit_ ," Abigail repeated, knowing just as well as the entirety of the A-Force that Peter hated nothing and no one more the idea that his sisters may one day join the team.

* * *

"Wait, so let me get this straight," Anya said, "you want us to help you?"

"Honestly? No."

"We'll do it!" Morgan said.

Peter raised his eyebrows. "I didn't even tell you what I need."

"We really just wanna be superheroes, spider-brother. That's it."

"I need to know before I let you help us. Can you find Sin?"

"Give me an hour with Sword's database," Morgan said confidently.

"Can't."

"Why?"

"I'll tell you after I decide. Can you find her?"

Morgan huffed. "Give us an hour and a half, no disruptions, lots of pizza, several cans of Monster and Harley's old boombox."

Peter sighed. "Fine. But you have to promise me that you'll be careful and you'll do exactly as I say. If you don't listen to me, you're not joining the team when shit hits the fan."

The sisters smiled. "We promise."

Peter nodded. "Okay then. I'll order pizza."

* * *

"If I knew he'd agree to our terms, I would've asked him to do my homework for the whole month."

Anya laughed. "That's pushing it, Morgan."

"Shut your face, Barnes."

"Make me, Stark."

"Is Virgil online?"

"Always," Anya said smugly.

"I meant is she running smoothly, you ass," Morgan said, tossing a squashed up serviette at Anya.

"Take you me for a sponge, Lady Stark? Of course."

"Just checking. Hand me that Iron Legend glasses."

"Didn't we agree that we were calling it the Iron Legacy glasses?"

"Legion, whatever."

Anya rolled her eyes and passed Morgan the glasses. Once Morgan was old enough to play with her father's toys, she had sat with the earpiece Anya had found that first night in Morgan's home, fiddling and experimenting until she had made her very own version of her father's favourite sunglasses. Anya always said Morgan looked ridiculous in them.

"Did you ever figure out how it works?"

Morgan shook her head as she worked on something. "So long as it doesn't stop. It helps, those little instructions help a lot sometimes. We should name it."

Anya smiled. "Something that stands for something. Your dad loved acronyms, and he definitely created whatever the hell it is, he would've named it with an acronym."

"You're right. Jane, Just A Neat . . . Eye-thing."

"That's ridiculous. Hey, what am I supposed to do when Virgil's done helping you hack Apple satellites?"

"Upload all the images Peter gave us of Sin. Do you have anything better?"

"Mateo, Morgan and Tony's Excellent . . . Object."

Morgan laughed. "That's even worse! Pams, Pretty And Mesmerising Sunglasses."

"Pams isn't a name, is it?"

"Doesn't matter. I've never heard of anyone called Virgil before."

"Virgil is actually a very common name among boys," Virgil said, "much less as a girl's name, but it exists. Would you like to view statistics?"

"No, I believe you," Anya said, "how much longer?"

"Approximately three minutes remain."

"Cool. Hey, what about Cate with a C. Cool And Trendy Experiment."

"No way," Morgan said shaking her head. "Stacie, Sunglasses That Are Cool In . . . England."

"Oh, is that why _you_ look like so tacky?"

"Take that back, you bitch!" Morgan cried, throwing a paperweight at her sister.

Anya panicked and used an old keyboard to hit it like a baseball. Both girls froze when the paperweight went through a glass screen.

"Mom's gonna kill us," Anya whispered, dropping the keyboard.

* * *

"The fate of Sword is in _their_ hands?" Abigail asked, watching what was happening in the lab from a screen Karen was projecting from Peter's wristband.

"They asked for an hour and a half. Just give them that. They'll find her."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyone know what the girls will eventually name their Legacy plaything?


	3. Chapter 3

"Oh, I _love_ this song!" Anya cried, spinning on her chair.

"It's so old!" Morgan complained, slamming her wrench down.

"It's amazing and you know it."

"It's _old_ and you know it," Morgan mocked.

"Whatever. I'm not changing it," Anya said before miming like a drummer, shaking her head far more than necessary.

Morgan rolled her eyes as she watched Anya randomly switch between the guitar and the drums before singing along, pretending she had a mic stand in front of her. Morgan laughed.

" _I'm a rolling thunder, a pouring rain_  
 _I'm comin' on like a hurricane._ " Anya snatched up Morgan's wrench and used it as a mic. " _My lightning's flashing across the sky  
_ _You're only young but you're gonna die!_ "

"Come on!" Anya laughed, "sing with me!"

Morgan smiled and watched her sister dance around the lab, badly singing along.

"Loser! _I got my bell, I'm gonna take you to hell!_ Morgan, don't be a spoilsport!" Anya tossed the wrench back, " _Satan get you!_ "

Momentarily forgetting all that Peter had told them about Hydra, the sisters sang together.

" _Hell's bells_  
 _Yeah, hell's bells_  
 _You got me ringing hell's bells_  
 _My temperature's high, hell's bells!_ "

"Go Morgan!" Anya cheered as Morgan mimed playing the guitar. Quite suddenly, the music shut off.

"Hey, what gives?" Morgan cried, "I was in _the zone_."

"Babes, no one says that anymore."

"No one listens to AC/DC anymore either."

"Blasphemy! Did you hear that, Mr Stark? Did you hear what your ungrateful daughter just said?!"

Morgan laughed as Anya stared upwards. "Shut _up_!"

"We've located Sinthea Schmidt," Virgil cut in.

"Oh," Anya said, sobering up. "We'd best get it to Peter, hm?"

"Mhm."

* * *

"So, who wants to volunteer?"

"There will be _no volunteering_ ," Bucky told Abigail. "I'm going."

"James," Pepper started.

"No, I'm going to talk to her. Any of you go see her, she'll feel twice as threatened. You know I'm right."

May shrugged. "He's right, Pep."

"I'll talk to her, the rest of you on standby surrounding the place. She tries to escape, stun her. _Only_! If she tries to escape. Got that?"

Heads around the room nodded.

"You two," Bucky said, pointing to the sisters, "stay on high ground. Surveillance. One step out of line and I'm grounding you against joining the A-Force forever."

"You can't--!"

"He can," Pepper interrupted Morgan, "and he will."

"Three minutes," Bucky said, looking around. "Grab your gear."

Sam watched Bucky leave with Pepper and May, the three of them very focused on their conversation.

Bucky was more like the Steve Sam had met in Washington than he gave himself credit for.

* * *

"How did you find Sin anyway?" Abigail asked.

Morgan peered at Abigail through the binoculars while Anya answered. "We sent data through facial recognition and voice analysis programs that I helped hack and a few other beauties Morgan developed."

"We eventually found her via voice recognition and ran a couple of scans to make sure," Morgan said, "why?"

From her perch on the other side of the plot, Abigail spied the two girls. "Just curious."

Morgan knew that Abigail thought she was too young to be so accomplished, but she didn't let it faze her. She knew she was a genius. She didn't need validation from anyone that wasn't her family.

"Got a visual," Anya said, "there's an old webcam in there. Forwarding visual feed to Harley now."

* * *

Bucky kept against the wall, Natasha's old gun raised, silent footsteps as he moved through the small house.

He stilled when he felt the barrel of a gun pressed to the back of his head.

"Who sent you?"

Bucky raised his hands slowly. "Do you remember me?"

"Yeah," Sin said a moment later, moving her gun away as moonlight caught Bucky's metal arm.

Bucky turned around, setting the weapon on the counter nearby. "We wondered what happened to you."

"How'd you find me?"

"The teenage geniuses found you, actually. I had nothing to do with it."

"Why?"

"Hydra make any contact with you lately?"

Sin scoffed, turning a light on. "Hydra doesn't know I'm awake. It took some time, but all my memories came back."

"On their own?"

"Mhm."

"Wow. Aren't you a lucky one," he murmured to himself.

"You never answered my question. Why'd you come looking for me?"

"I -- we need your help. I'm here to ask a favour -- which you do not have to agree to immediately."

"I'm listening."

"I need your help in taking Hydra down for good. I assume you know them better than anyone else."

Sin nodded. "That's right."

"We're not really sure what the goal is, but if they continue growing, Hydra will have hands on nuclear weapons that are currently in orbit. If we get hit by even one of those, results will be catastrophic. There might even be _no_ survivors."

"What do you want from me?"

"We need someone on the inside."

"Don't you have agents for this kind of thing? I was in Sword Earth's building. I saw what it looked like."

"You've also been in Sword's records. You know how thorough they are. You know none of those agents would last a day."

Sin shrugged. "They don't train 'em like they used to, huh?"

Bucky suddenly smiled.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"I'll shoot you."

"Okay, I believe you. It's really nothing. I just noticed . . . you've still got a bit of an accent."

"I don't," Sin said, denying it entirely.

"Don't hide it. It's part of you. You're still trying to figure that out, aren't you?"

Sin folded her arms. "What gives you that idea?" she asked, her German accent slipping through on some of her words.

Bucky held up a small journal, thick with newspaper articles and photographs stuffed inside. Sin lunged for him and snatched it out of his grasp, clutching it to her chest.

"I kept several of those when I broke away from Hydra. I hid away from people too. You don't have to be alone."

"You have ten seconds to buy my loyalty," Sin said after a moment of silence.

"She needs a home," May said softly.

"If you prove yourself and help us kill Hydra for good, we'll give you a proper place to live and something way better than energy bars from a convenience store to eat."

Abigail was seconds away from throwing a fit on the line.

" _And a job_ ," Maria said.

"And a job," Bucky repeated. He tuned out Abigail's angry protests and raised his eyebrows at Sin, waiting.

"What kind of a job?"

"The kind supersoldiers are made for," he said with a shrug, "I thought I only had ten seconds."

"Curiosity killed the cat, sue me." Sin frowned. "This place you'll give me . . . will it have one of those electronic friends you have in your home?"

"Are you talking about an AI?"

"She'll stay with us," Pepper said, driving Abigail near cardiac arrest, "so yes."

"Yes," Bucky told Sin, "I'm sure Morgan will teach you all about it, she likes showing off her excellency."

"Fine. I'll help you. But not because I wanna do the right thing. I'm being selfish."

"That's fine. Is there anything you need to grab?"

Sin glanced at the journal in her hand. "No."

"Then let's go. We don't have a lot of time to waste."

* * *

While Abigail yelled arguments at Bucky, Pepper and May about adopting a Hydra murder child, Peter bugged Sin.

"You look a bit younger since we last saw you."

"Don't be fucking _rude_!" Harley yelled, whacking Peter with a cushion.

"I'm not being rude! I said she looks young! That's kind of a compliment!"

"And true," Sin told Harley.

Harley sat down next to Peter. "What do you mean?"

"When I was growing up, these Hydra nuns used to slowly give me small doses of Erskine's serum. Once I reached about twenty, my father decided to safeguard his 'heir' -- even though he cast me out for not being a son. Over the years, Hydra did a few experiments on me. I don't remember most of them. Some gave me mutant abilities. Like limited shape-shifting."

"You can alter your appearance," Harley said, eyes widening in amazement, "you actually made yourself look younger. That's incredible!"

"It's how I stayed hidden for so long. I can't really change a lot about my actual structure, but I can de-age myself pretty easily -- if that makes sense."

"It does! It's no wonder facial recognition never picked you up. It was probably scanning for you looking like your photos, not some the way you look now. Wait, can you do it the other way around? Make yourself look older?"

Sin shrugged. "I've never tried."

"What about minor changes? Like hair colour, eye colour, skin tone, vocal levels?"

Peter rolled his eyes. "And the nerd in you comes out."

"Shur up, Parker, you casually leafed through a dictionary."

Sin snorted in amusement, the sound shocking her into silence as her eyes widened and a look of childlike surprise and wonder appeared on her face.

"What, have you never laughed before?"

Sin slowly shook her head. "Not like this. Not in genuine amusement. I usually just laugh at people who aren't as good as me. I laughed at a Hydra agent that fell down the stairs once."

"Oh, that's normal," Harley assured her, "the girls and I laugh at Peter _every_ time he falls down the stairs."

"Kay, bye," Peter said, standing up and leaving. He did want to call MJ and talk anyway.

* * *

"Baby, I know you like the shield, but it's too big for you."

Anya folded her arms. "So? I can use it pretty well."

"You used it _once_ in actual combat," Shuri said. "Would you just try it out?"

Anya warily eyed the shield Shuri was holding out to her. It was round, much like her father's, but instead of the iconic Captain America look, the shield was a dark gray, the colour of her suit. If she looked hard enough, she could faintly see a wolf in a slightly lighter shade -- and it was much smaller.

"Morgan had a hand in the designing phase," Shuri said, hoping that would sway Anya.

Reluctantly, Anya put her father's shield down and walked over to Shuri. "It's got no handles."

"True," Shuri said, reaching behind Anya's ear to activate her suit. Once the suit was fully formed, the shield in her hand vibrated before flying towards Anya and attaching itself to her left arm. "But who needs handles these days?"

"Oh, that's wicked."

"Try it out," Shuri said, gesturing to the open training area.

The helmet of Anya's suit covered up her head as she practised with the new shield. Half an hour later, she reluctantly found and told Shuri that she had been right.

* * *

"What are we going to do?" Peter asked.

"What do you mean?"

"About Hydra . . . and Sword."

Maria shrugged. "When Sam and I worked to help take Hydra down, we took Shield down too. There's a possibility you might have to take Sword down too."

"And what happens to everyone who isn't Hydra?"

"There's no way of knowing, Peter. When we took down Shield, a couple of agents joined the CIA, FBI, things like that. Some moved over and joined agencies like MI6. They're agents, Peter, and survival is drilled into them from training day one. They'll find their way. You might even catch one of them joining MIB or something."

"I just feel so guilty."

"Well, Peter, sometimes our choices are bad or worse. You know that better than most people in this tower. Besides, the A-Force will still stick around, and we'll still all try to babysit you guys."

Peter scoffed. "Oh, trust me, I don't think we're going to go civil war on each other."

Maria smiled. "But if it does come to that, make sure you find a nice high school kid who has homework to pick up the pieces."

"Shut up," Peter grumbled, but he smiled.

"Stark would be proud of you, kid, of everything you've done -- not just for his kid. He would've been front and centre on the Romanova Institute founding too."

"I miss him," Peter said, "sometimes more than I feel like I'm allowed to."

"Oh, Pete," Maria said, moving to sit down beside Peter. "We all miss him, but you had a special place with him. You were family. You're allowed to miss him just as much as Morgan does -- maybe even more."

"I see him in Morgan, a little more than Pep does. She's always so confident. Anya's a genius in her own right too, but everyone sees Morgan as the smart one because she wants them too. She knows when she's the smartest person in the room and she's not afraid to flaunt it. I feel like the only person she will ever see as smarter than herself is Shuri."

"With good reason," Maria murmured.

Peter nodded, agreeing. "But it doesn't stop there. She has this inexplicable need to help people. She's been trying to join Sword since she was twelve. That's the whole reason she got into building suits. She tried to bargain, saying she would have armour better than actual Sword agents. Morgan's always looking forward. She built her suit and seconds later started designing one for her sister. She steadily upgraded them on the off-chance that she might one day need them. She has _backups_ of _backups_ just in case. She plans for every single possibility she can think of. And if that isn't typical Stark behaviour. . ."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so Peter has noticed that Morgan seems to be following in her father's footsteps...........
> 
> YAY Sin is back! I love my murder daughter a lot, okay??


	4. Chapter 4

"Parker? You good?"

Peter nodded stiffly, clutching the back of Abigail's seat hard enough to turn his knuckles white. "I just hate this a lot."

"Just a little longer, Peter," Abigail said sympathetically, "we'll break the atmosphere in a few seconds and the ship will stabilize."

Shuri rolled her eyes at the back of Abigail's head as Peter scoffed softly. She put her hand on his shoulders. "Hey, Parker. Look at me. Focus."

"Shuri --"

"What is the chemical formula for ethanol?"

Peter frowned. "What?"

Shuri raised her eyebrows. "What, you don't know?"

"C2H5OH," Peter recited, offended, "but why?"

"Science distracts you. How long does it take for a human skeleton to decompose?"

"Forty to fifty years. Forty to fifty minutes if I get Hilda to give me her strongest Asgardian drink to douse the body and set it alight."

"Why in the hell do you know that, spider-brother?"

Peter shrugged. "You gotta know enough random pieces of mostly useless information to be considered dangerous."

"You? Dangerous?" Cassie laughed. "You're an innocent _child_!"

"I thought we agreed not to insult children anymore, Cass," Nicole said with a smirk at Peter.

"I hate this team," Peter grumbled playfully, turning away from everyone and looking out the window. 

He had left Earth exactly once since he was seventeen. When he had travelled to see the Peak for the first time, he had been excited. He'd also been so busy checking everything that was on its way up that he hadn't had time to look outside until after the Sword ship had docked within the Peak. Now, they were in no hurry to let Sword notice them and so they seemed to float around in space. Peter hated it. Not only had he died in space, but the first thing that happened when he came back was lose Tony. Staring at the stars ahead, Peter's mind flashed to the first time since that battle that he'd properly looked up at the sky. It had been awful. He'd kept seeing the same scenes over and over again.

Tony dying. 

The Sanctuary II raining blasts on him.

The aliens swarming him.

Tony dying.

Coupled with all of that, Peter often remembered the feeling of slowly fading from existence. It had been one of the most painful experiences he'd ever had. Worse was thinking about what had been going through Tony's mind at that moment. _If you die, I feel like that's on me_.

Peter turned away from the view of the universe and his gaze landed on his sisters fiddling with a pair of sunglasses. Now and then, they would snicker to themselves. When he had heard those words from Tony, he hadn't quite understood it. Watching the girls sit in one end of the ship, Peter realised that he had finally understood it the very first time Morgan had tried to help out. He knew he didn't want them on this team because he knew firsthand how dangerous being a superhero could be. He'd promised Natasha in person, to her face, that if something ever happened to her, he would look after Bucky and Anya. He hadn't known about Morgan before Tony had died, or he would've said the same to Tony without even pausing to think. He knew that the promise he made to Tony's headstone held the same weight to him as his promise to Natasha did. 

* * *

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Maria asked.

From the seat next to her, Abigail shrugged. "I secured a joint interview for us with ATCU and a secondary with DOD. Let's do this."

"Isn't there another way to cause mass panic?" Sin asked, leaning between the two directors, "blowing a hole in a spaceship tends to kill people."

Bucky, who had been silent for the most part, looked up and smiled. Peter caught his gaze and grinned. It had only been a few days at the tower and Sin was already falling into place.

"It's my office," Abigail said, "no one goes in. If there's someone in there, there's a ninety-nine percent chance they're Hydra."

"Ninety-nine," Sin repeated, moving back and strapping herself in. "What about the one percent chance they're _not_ Hydra?" she murmured to herself. 

Nicole, who was strapping herself in beside Sin, glanced at her. "Being a hero isn't easy, Sin. Sometimes it's bad or worse."

"So I've been told."

They braced themselves for impact as Abigail and Maria forced the jet into a nosedive. 

"You two owe me a ship," Brunnhilde muttered. 

Throughout the Peak, alarms sounded and doors began to close, effectively imprisoning everyone on the spacecraft. Emergency doors slammed shut, both trapping Sword agents and blocking off the escape pods. Surprisingly, protocol was followed and everyone sat to wait for further instruction from Director Brand -- or acting director. 

The A-Force stopped to stare at the Warsong in wonder and amazement. It rattled and seemed like it was falling apart, but it held together brilliantly. Sometimes it was the biggest miracle any of the A-Force -- and the Avengers -- had ever seen. 

"See?" Abigail said as she looked around her office. "No one's inside."

"Okay," Nicole said, bouncing into Abigail's chair, "sync up, ladies, we--" she paused abruptly and looked up at Bucky, Sam and Bruce. "Sorry, I forgot about you guys. It's usually just us."

Peter cleared his throat loudly. Morgan chuckled. 

"Everyone online?" Cassie asked, tapping her earpiece.

"Linking ground control . . . now." Nicole tapped a few keys. "Sword Earth screw-ups, this is Sword Peak screwups, are you in position?"

"I'm going to kill her," Harley murmured over the frequency. 

Nicole grinned. 

"We're ready, sweetheart," May said, "just say the words."

"Intercoms opening to Brand in three . . . two . . . one." Nicole nodded to Abigail.

"It has come to my attention," Abigail said, walking to the floor-to-ceiling windows of her office, "that I am not, in fact, aware of everything that's going on in this sect of Sword. In light of the growth of a . . . tumour, we will be shutting Sword down."

While she watched from the windows, the others viewed the screens Nicole pulled up. Everywhere they looked, chaos reigned. 

"Sword was founded on the belief that we are not and we need to be prepared for something like the Decimation. We are not prepared for that. We can't even see ancient enemies among us." 

The hallways and control rooms and command centres stilled, looking around and at one another in silence.

"Hydra is a never-ending foe. Cut off one head, two more shall take its place. It's high time we stake the beast. Kill it for good. I'm willing to do what it takes to get rid of Hydra, even if that means blowing up this entire station. Are you?"

"They're not doing anything," Pepper murmured.

"They will," Sin said. 

It took a moment before someone hailed the cry, but after that, chaos re-erupted within the Peak. 

"Hail Hydra!"

Sword agents reacted instantly, pulling triggers on friends turned foe. Peter turned his gaze away from the instant battlefield. Pepper and Bucky glanced at each other before the latter jerked his head towards Peter. Sin beat Pepper to him and gently rubbed his arm. 

"It's Hydra," she said softly, "we have to."

"I know. Doesn't really make it any better."

"I know." Grabbing his hand, Sin dragged Peter to the window. Sighing, he looked out. "My father built this. He built it up from its ruins the last time it was destroyed. Hydra's been around for millennia. I was born because of Hydra." Sin turned to Peter. "But I'm going to help you destroy it. Because that's what I'm really here for. Because you got your sisters to seek me out, because I want to be one of you. I don't want to just be Sinthea Schmidt, an assassin. I want to be a hero. And if being a hero includes tearing down everything my own blood built, then I'm going to do just that. All I ask is that you all stand with me, because I am _so_ afraid of losing."

Peter nodded. "Okay, Sin." He turned to face the gathered heroes and ex-superheroes. "Move out, you know your tasks."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my poor bby Peter i made me sad  
> \------------------------------------------  
> listen, guys, I am so sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter up but like apparently, campus is Not Easy. Also, Wattys is ending in like 2-3 days so Supernova will be up soon if I don't get like sued for something or whatever the Wattys Awards contract says. 
> 
> on another note, opinions on Clintasha for a new fanfiction I'm working on that actually starts in CA:TFA?? Or Brucetasha (tho I'm not too fond of that myself) 
> 
> i hope to bring new chapters soon!! Two new characters will arrive too, one OC and one comic character, any guesses?


	5. Chapter 5

"Please be a secret door, please be a secret door, please be a secret door, please be -- yay!"

The wall sunk back and slid to the left.

"Something big in there?" Nicole asked, the sound scratchy over radio as Morgan crossed the threshold.

"This place is wicked. I've never seen such cool tech before."

"I'm sending our exact location," Anya said, "we're gonna need help hauling all of this out of the arse of the Peak."

"Language," Bucky said.

Bruce made a funny sound that sounded somewhere between a cough, a snort and a laugh. Thirty minutes and several trips back and forth later, the A-Force and their temporary allies stood around a table on the control deck of the dead Peak, surveying their loot.

"How long has Sword been hiding all of this?" Cassie asked.

"We didn't even know about this," Abigail said, looking at Maria, who shook her head.

"What's so special about this stuff anyway? Aside from a neon green safety," Shuri asked, picking up a simple handgun. She turned it over in her hand a few times before flicking the safety off.

"Biometric scan complete. Access denied. Please stand back."

Shuri dropped the weapon like it was hot and everyone instinctively moved away from the table.

Bucky stepped forward.

"James --"

"I got this." Reaching out with his left hand, Bucky picked up the same gun.

They waited.

Nothing happened.

Slowly, he placed his other hand on the barrel. "Biometric scan complete. Access denied. Please stand back." He let go of the barrel instantly.

"Can I try?" Sin asked, holding out her hand.

Shrugging, Bucky held the gun out to her. Cautiously, Sin wrapped her fingers around the gun, tapping her finger against the trigger.

"Biometric scan complete. Access granted to Sinthea Schmidt."

Abigail raised her eyebrows.

"Must be really old stuff," Sin said, tossing the gun from her right hand to her left.

"Welcome, Sin."

"Or," Peter said, noticing the way Abigail cautiously stared at Sin, "they could've used your records. You have those, you know. Sword had them."

"So all of this junk is responsive to _your_ fingerprint," Anya said, "that's pretty cool, actually."

"What happens if we don't step back?" Morgan asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Let's test it," Nicole said, reaching out for a blade she had been itching to grab ever since they opened the crates, "I've always wanted an actual sword."

Cassie moved to stop her, but Nicole already pulled the blade out and was holding it up, admiring the matte black finish. She moved away from the group and gave it a few swings, accidentally making a dent what was left standing of the railings. "Huh, nothing happened."

"Maybe because they're electronic," Pepper said, "you have to manually flick a switch?"

Nicole studied the hilt of the blade. "Well, I mean, there's a gem in the centre. . ." She placed her thumb over it.

"Biometric scan complete." Nicole got ready to hold tight no matter what. "Access granted to Nicolette Lila Barton."

"Your full name is _Nicolette_?" Sin asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Shut up," Nicole snapped, "yours is a ridiculous misspelling of Cynthia."

"That's not important," Abigail said, "what's important is that it responded to Nicole's fingerprint."

"Why?" Maria asked. "Aside from the fact that she isn't an official agent, which means Sword's database held her as a civilian, which means Sword shouldn't be holding weapons that are accessed by her fingerprint, the last time I saw Nic's full name was on her _grade school certificates_."

At the loud sound of something clattering on the level below, they all turned to see Nicole holding the blade up, grinning at it in awe.

"Who cares why?!" she cried, seconds away from laughter.

"You just sliced the handrail off," Cassie said flatly, staring over the edge.

Nicole flipped the blade's hilt in her hand and gripped it tight. The accents on the blade lit up gold, rising like molten gold through the grooves. Surprised, Nicole dropped it and stepped back. The blade returned to normal.

"Wow," Nicole breathed. "Someone else try it.

Cassie picked it up. Nothing happened, so she swung it at the rail. It bounced off harder than Bucky's shield. Frowning, Cassie brushed her finger over the same gemstone.

"Biometric scan complete. Access denied. Please stand back."

Having seen what the blade could do, Cassie set it down. "Try it again, Nic."

Nicole wrapped her hands around the hilt again.

"Welcome, Ronin."

"How does it know that?" Nicole asked, glancing around.

"Is there something you'd like to share with the group?" Sin added, " _Nicolette_?"

"Shut up, Sinthea."

Sin snickered. "Can I try it?"

"Yeah."

Nicole meant to touch the tip of the blade on the metal ground, but ended up driving half the blade through it. "I _need_ to master this thing. It's challenging me. I know it."

Sin walked up to it and grabbed the hilt. She pulled as hard as she could, but she couldn't pull the blade out.

"What, is this thing some kind of Excalibur?" Peter asked.

"Aunt May and I just went through every single file Sword and Shield has ever had," Harley said, "and there's zero mention of a blade that behaves like the legendary Excalibur."

"Well, how do you explain _this_?" Anya asked, projecting video feed of Abigail and Maria trying to pull the blade out to her brother.

"The Hydra files you got are still encrypted," May said, "maybe there's something in there."

"Anya," Shuri said, watching the girl put her shield down, "what are you doing?"

"I'm curious, sue me."

She reached into the crate, careful not to touch the other items, and pulled out a shield whose size was somewhere between hers and her father's. She spun it over in her hands a few times. "This is definitely _not_ Vibranium," she said, "but whatever it is, it's strong."

Curiosity growing, she slipped her arm into the straps and tightened the buckles around her forearm and wrist. She swung her arm a few times. "Well, there's no fancy gems."

"What's that?" Morgan asked, pointing to a small disc on the belt tightened around Anya's palm.

"Looks familiar," Anya said, running her fingers over the engraved disc.

"Biometric scan complete. Access granted to Anastasia Nikitichna Volkova-Barnes."

"Woah."

"Tap it again," Nicole said, easily pulling the blade from the ground. "Maybe yours will light up too."

Deciding they had nothing to lose, Anya tapped it again. Rings towards the centre lit up silver, a symbol everyone recognized lighting up on the centre.

 _Our own little bubble_ , Bucky thought, staring at the merged symbols.

"Try it out?" Nicole suggested.

"What do you want me to throw it at? What if I break something a little too close to the edge and we end up suffocating in space?"

"Throw it that way," Abigail said, pointing to the door leading closer to the centre of the spacecraft. "I'll reset the emergency protocols. If you break something, the automatic sluices will close up before we run out of air."

"All right," Anya said, facing the doorway.

With a sharp swing, the shield flew off the brace around her arm.

"Holy shit," she whispered, having not felt the tug that she was so used to when using the Captain America shield.

No alarms went off and no crashes were heard.

"Think you can call it back?" Bruce asked.

Anya shrugged, looking at the disc. She traced a circle around the edge, going anticlockwise. "I don't know. How would I even--"

Alarms went off. Abigail checked a flickering screen in front of her. "A wall right at the end of the craft has a hole right through it, sluices are closing now."

The doors leading to the hallway began to close. They waited, watching. In the blink of an eye, the door clicked shut.

"Oh my God," Anya whispered.

"What the hell?" Morgan whispered, staring at the shield on Anya's arm.

"There's no way it should've made it through the sluice," Abigail said, "we've had several drills over the years. Not even our fastest have ever made it through the last sluice when they saw the first one close."

"I'm willing to bet you've never seen Excalibur before either," Sam said, raising his eyebrows and glancing at the blade Nicole was still holding on to.

"Is it the same as the blade?" Brunnhilde asked, "can anyone else do that?"

Anya shrugged the shield off her arm and passed it to Morgan.

Morgan, who had successfully managed to use the Captain America shield before, found that she couldn't even throw it at anything.

"What the hell?" Morgan murmured, tracing her fingers over the disc. She received the same old error warning.

"These crates are coming down with us," Maria decided.

Thirty minutes later, they had stowed the closed crates in the Warsong and piled themselves into it. Morgan and Pepper saw the ship off. Once they were gone, mother and daughter got to work arming the string of bombs before they took off after the ship.

* * *

"I'm gonna miss the Peak," Abigail sighed.

"I'm not," Maria scoffed, "you guys were always breathing down my neck."

"I did my best not to, okay?"

With gloved hands, the two ex-Sword directors laid out all the items they'd taken from the Peak. "We should call them in and see if they feel drawn to something. Nicole and Anya haven't exactly let theirs out of their sight yet."

Abigail narrowed her eyes at the three tables in front of them. "I don't like this, Hill."

"We're not calling the shots anymore, Brand," Maria said flatly, "it's not up to you what they do and what they don't."

Abigail hissed to herself, hating that Maria was right.

"Okay," Peter said to everyone a few minutes later, "browse through them, try a few things out, let me know if you feel like you found something . . . special."

May raised her eyebrows as Peter came to stand beside her with Harley, Bucky and Sam. "You don't think there's something for you in there?"

"Not really."

The air was filled with the error message repeatedly overlapping.

"I'm sure they're something, kid," Sam said.

"I'll look through them if you look through them," Peter said, "all four of you."

May laughed. "Sweetie, Harley and I barely have self-defence training. We are the _farthest_ from Sword weaponry."

"Can't hurt to try," Peter said with a shrug, heading towards the end of the first table. With a shrug, Harley followed.

"Access granted to Cassandra Eleanor Lang."

At the sound of a first success, everyone dropped what they were holding to look at Cassie.

"What is that?" Nicole asked.

"I'm not sure," Cassie said, looking at the gloves. She clapped her hands together and rubbed them together, but nothing happened. Nicole ventured closer and the second her own hand made contact with Cassie's, she vanished.

"Where'd she go?!" Shuri cried.

They looked around, hoping to find Nicole. Cassie was the one who did. "She shrank!"

"Where?" Peter asked.

Cassie pointed and in the blink of an eye, Nicole stood looking around wildly. "That was awesome. Is that how you feel whenever you're so tiny?"

"What the hell just happened?" Shuri asked, examining Cassie's gloved hands, careful not to touch them. "It's doing the same thing as your blasters . . . but quite possibly a little more concentrated and you'd probably have more control of it. That _is_ pretty awesome."

Cassie quickly pulled the gloves off and half-tucked them into her pocket.

They next froze when 'Princess Shuri Udaku' activated a set of bracelets.

"They're . . . pretty?" Sin said.

They reminded Shuri of her own bracelets, so she crossed her arms in the Wakandan salute and when she uncrossed them, the entire room witnessed heavy blasters materialising behind the princess. She moved her arms around and the blasters changed direction.

"It works like the guns on my ship," Brunnhilde said, "best put them away for now, princess."

Nodding in agreement, Shuri slipped the bracelets off.

The third to activate something was 'Peter Benjamin Parker', who was turning over a small little drone spider. "Don't you have a dozen of those?" Pepper asked.

"I do," Peter said, nodding. The spider in his hand suddenly jumped up and hovered in front of Morgan, who had put on an old -- and useless -- Hydra helmet for fun.

"Identified enemy," it said, glowing red, "commencing elimination."

"Morgan!" Anya cried as her sister ripped off the helmet.

"Identified Morgan Stark," the drone said, its glow turning back to a faint blue, "all protective protocols engaged."

"What kind of protocols?" Peter wondered.

Curious, Anya put the helmet on and pinched her sister.

"Ow!"

"Commencing elimination."

Anya instinctively held up the shield, deflecting fire.

"Identified Volkova."

Anya ripped the Hydra hamlet off before she lowered the shield when the barrage of blasts sharply came to a stop.

"Identified Anastasia Barnes, all protective protocols engaged."

Eyeing the drone, Morgan pushed Anya.

"Hey!"

The drone focused on Morgan, then on both girls. It did nothing.

"Huh," Peter said.

"Hello, Spiderman," it said, its voice warped.

"What the hell was that?" Sin asked.

"Hello Spiderman," it said again, this time in Karen's voice, "my protocols appear to have been updated."

"Did _it_ take over _you_ or did _you_ take over _it_?" Peter asked.

"I'm not certain. No protocols appear to be dangerous."

"You have an Instant Kill mode," Maria said flatly.

"No _non-aggressive_ protocols appear to be dangerous," Karen amended, "and will be even less dangerous now that I have partial control."

"That _is_ pretty cool," Peter admitted.

"Let's test," Cassie whispered to Nicole. She activated her helmet before nudging Morgan into Anya, just in case she needed to shrink to avoid a stream of bullets.

"Hey!"

The drone turned to face Cassie and this time scanned first. "Identified Bumblebee," the drone's original voice returned. "Threat level, zero."

"Hey!" Cassie cried, opening her helmet and frowning.

"Identified Cassandra Lang, all protective protocols engaged."

"I am _not_ a bumblebee!"

"Don't look at me," Peter said, raising his hands. "Karen, scan the rest of them."

"Sinthea Schmidt was not logged in Sword files as an official team member. Information has not been updated. The drone may attempt elimination protocols."

"Then add her," Peter said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I cannot access main controls."

"Then don't scan Sin until we've managed to access main controls. Duh."

"Duh," Karen mimicked in her patronising robot voice. She went through them one by one.

"Identified Harley Keener, all protective protocols engaged."

"Identified Princess Shuri, all protective protocols engaged."

"Identified Nicole Barton, all protective protocols engaged."

"Identified Brunnhilde, the Valkyrie, all protective protocols engaged."

"Identified Sam Wilson, all protective protocols engaged."

"Identified Bruce Banner, all protective protocols engaged."

"Identified Maria Hill, all protective protocols engaged. Minimal authoritative access granted."

"Identified Pepper Stark, all protective protocols engaged. Moderate authoritative access granted."

"Identified James Barnes, all protective protocols engaged. Moderate authoritative access granted."

"Identified May Parker, all protective protocols engaged. Moderate authoritative access granted."

"Identified Abigail Brand, selective protective protocols engaged. Threat level, minimal -- subject to increase. Selective defence protocols engaged."

Abigail's eyes widened at the varied assessment she had received from the drone. Before anyone could stop it, Karen was done scanning Sin.

"Identified Sinthea Schmidt, all protective protocols engaged. Authority granted. Maximum defence protocols available."

Sin raised her eyebrows. "That was strange."

Peter glanced at Abigail. "Yeah. Very."

What did the drone know that they didn't?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooooo what does the drone know? who built this stuff? where did it come from? is it Hydra? is it safe?
> 
> good (or bad) news: i don't rightly know


	6. Chapter 6

Morgan had eventually found a case filled with enhancements for her suit and claimed that was the only thing that responded to her fingerprint.

"Wait," Anya said, "you want me to help you put Virgil in this thing?"

"Of course not," Morgan scoffed. She smiled innocently. " _I_ wanna help _you_ put Virgil in this thing."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, _sestra_. The last time someone put an AI into a synthetic body --"

"The Vision was born, I know."

"Well, actually, I was thinking about the time Aliya Petrova almost created an Ultron 2.0 in '28, but yes I suppose the Vision counts."

"Well, we're not Aliya Petrova, are we?"

"No, we're an eighteen-year-old who still hasn't applied to college yet, and a sixteen-year-old who might have begun to grow a bit of an inflated ego. We can't do this, Morgan. Vision was a fluke, I know that. I've seen the android, the day he died. I know the stories just as well as you should. If it weren't for Thor, Vision might've been Ultron in a Vibranium body."

"What I'm hearing is that your faith in us is lacking."

"Morgan I'm being serious. This body is clearly made of whatever our new weapons are made of. If we create a monster, there's no way we can stop it."

"Ann, the casket responded to my fingerprint. There has to be a reason. You know you think so. Why else would you help me get to Sword's labs?"

"I don't know, M, maybe so you didn't do something like _this_?" Anya gestured around the lab wildly.

"I wanna know what's in there," Morgan said, placing her hand on top of the casket, "I want to be able to protect my family from all the dangers of the universe. I've seen what lies in wait out there. _You've_ seen it! My dad and your mom died because they --"

"Our parents _gave_ _their_ _lives_! Your father chose to sacrifice himself for the only sure-fire way he knew to kill the titan. No one held a gun to his head. He chose that. My mother jumped off a cliff for an Infinity Stone. She made that choice. She chose to do something she didn't want anyone else doing. No one pushed her off that cliff. No person or creature forced them into it. Do _not_ take away from their sacrifice. _Do_ _not_ take that away from them."

Morgan had never seen her sister so upset before.

"Okay. That was out of line. I'm sorry. But that doesn't change my mind. We need to prepare ourselves for the next Thanos. We don't know what's really out there. Lying in wait. Something worse could threaten our universe--"

"The universe is not our responsibility!" Anya cried, "we're _kids_ , Morgan!"

"Sword is gone, Anya! Sword can't protect us anymore."

"You think Sword is the only thing guarding the universe? What the hell do you think Thor and Quill are leading out in space? What do you think Carol is doing? What about the Skrulls? Yes, Sword went down and yes, we helped take it down, but they're not the only ones being heroes. We -- you shouldn't be carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. You're _sixteen_ , Morgan. Act like it."

"I can't," Morgan said, stepping away from the casket and towards Anya, "I can't rest easy knowing that there is so much I can do . . . and I'm not doing it."

"You are going in way over your head, and you are going to make mistakes. You have the rest of your life to dedicate to heroism. Grow up first. Live your life. Have a stupid summer fling. Go to a stupid party. Flaunt your intelligence at competitions and championships. Be horrible at trigonometry. Get bitten by a bee. Eat a spoiled cheesecake. Go to prom. Get a bad haircut. There is so much waiting for you. Whatever's inside that casket can wait too. It can wait until you've made other mistakes to learn from. It can wait until we're older."

Anya held out her hand and with a sigh, Morgan took it.

"Let's go home."

Morgan ended up staying up all night in her lab at home, working on a synthetic body of her own. If she couldn't _have_ what was in the casket, then she would _make_ what was in there.

* * *

"Settling in?" May asked.

"I guess."

May smiled and held out a mug to Sin. "I don't know which side of the age line you'd like to sit, but the kids usually spend the morning wondering if they really need to wake up before spending a few hours doing their own thing. Pepper and I usually sit for a cup of coffee. James has his moods."

Sin took the mug with a grateful smile. "Don't you work?"

"I meant weekends," May said, sitting down next to Sin, "weekdays are hectic. Everyone's up early and rushing over each other. How did you sleep last night?"

"It was all right. There was this loud thumping noise a little early on, but it faded out."

May nodded. "Cassie and Nicole throw a two-person victory party after every successful operation they do as a team. Peter's usually at home with MJ and Shuri usually brings earplugs. Brunnhilde rarely joins in -- she's usually out like a light in her room. They stay on the floor below when they're not out doing solo work. They'll be up for breakfast in a few hours or less, depending on when they actually went to bed."

"What do you normally do all day?"

"You mean on the weekends?"

Sin nodded.

"Well, it varies. A few weeks before Peter got married, he and MJ would sleep here and we would just spend the day lazing around in the lounge. Sometimes we go out for lunch. Most days we order in. Often, the girls would ask if they could go visit Ned -- Peter's best friend -- and he'll give them the same tour of his Star Wars centre that he gives every time. They love spending time with him."

Sin nodded to herself. "So a family . . . doesn't have to be related by blood?"

"Of course not, sweetheart. Our family is huge, bigger than realistically expected. We love every single one of our family, but the ones we keep real close to our heart, they stay with us both in our hearts, and up here in the tower." May smiled at Sin. "And if you need it, that means you too."

Expectedly, Sin frowned. She tilted her head down, staring at her warped reflection in the black coffee. "Why?"

May lifted Sin's chin and smiled at her. "That day in the basement, James saw something in you. Whatever it was, he's kept it to himself. Maybe he feels connected to you in some way. He knows better than any of us what you must be going through -- what you have gone through. But whatever it is, Pep and I know him well enough to know that we trust him. He saw something in you and that's all we need to know."

"I don't understand. I did horrible things. I kidnapped Morgan!"

"You did, yes. I'll admit, sometimes it's a bit difficult to see you separate from the woman that kidnapped my daughter, but I'm trying. You should, too. We meant every word. You aren't what Hydra made you. Not everyone is lucky enough to be proud of their past. There are many people out there who regret every single thing they've done in their past. It doesn't make you any less worthy of our love. We told you we would give you a home if you proved yourself to us. You did, so welcome home. I know you've done horrible things, Sin, and I know that you have so much blood on your hands. I know it. Pep knows it, James knows it. I can't say that we don't care, because that might be a lie, but we are willing to look past it and to help you find a new place in your life."

"I still don't understand. It makes no sense. I don't see how you can do all of that. I don't understand how you can look at a killer and think to invite her to stay with you. Aren't you afraid I'm going to try to hurt someone?"

"Oh, I'm terrified. But if I could learn not to fear James and his metal arm, I can learn not to fear you and your mutant talents."

Sin scoffed. "James and I are not the same."

"No two people in this family are the same, Sin. I'm one of two people in this family who isn't or has not been a superhero. Okay, three, if I count MJ. You think I bargained for this when I married Ben Parker? Hell, no! I thought I was in for a nice and calm and sweet life with my loving husband. Next thing I know, my brother-in-law and his wife are dead, my husband is dead, my nephew is running around in a red and blue onesie, and apparently, I missed five years and came back to a world where _Tony_ fucking _Stark_ managed to die. Sweetheart, whoever you were, she's gone. You can't get her back. She'll make a few visits now and then, but you'll never be her again. Who do you want to be _now_? What do you want to be _now_?"

Sin looked at May. "I want to be loved," she admitted in a soft whisper.

"That's something I can help with," May said, taking the mug from sin and setting it on the coffee table. "Come here."

Sin curled up into a ball with her head on May's lap. May smiled as she threaded her fingers through Sin's crimson locks.

"Whenever you forget who you are, just try to hold on to the fact that you have a family that cares about you -- whoever you may be -- and we will always wait for you to come home."

Sin still didn't understand how she could be so quickly accepted into a family she had tried to attack -- more than once -- but she decided to stop questioning it. Whatever their reasons, they had them. She found herself just grateful for it.

It was approximately half an hour later when the tower woke up. Sam and Bruce had gone to their own homes early last night. Maria had stayed overnight and Abigail currently had nowhere to go.

Peter was currently cackling.

"I tried, okay?!" MJ yelled, shoving yet another burnt pancake into the bin.

"Peter!" May scolded, flicking his ear, "you know we can't cook!"

"I got it," Harley said, taking over from MJ.

Anya was quietly talking to Morgan, asking her why she never went to bed. Cassie, Nicole and Shuri were excitedly discussing their new weapons and how to master them. Bucky and Pepper were discussing whether they even should learn to master their new weapons. Abigail and Maria were talking about their interview with DOD. According to Shuri, the Valkyrie was still asleep.

Sin watched all of this from the counter in the kitchen. It was a ridiculously large group, and there was still somehow space for everyone. She wasn't quite sure if she fitted in yet, but she knew that she wanted to. She wanted Harley to say she was his little sister too. She wanted Morgan to say she had _two_ big sisters. She wanted May to tell people she had two sons and _three_ daughters. Sin knew that she still wasn't quite sure who she was, but she knew where she wanted to belong.

And that was enough to find herself content. 

* * *

"We decoded some of the most recent files," Harley said when everyone -- Brunnhilde included -- was seated at the table, enjoying the _not_ -burnt breakfast. 

"And?" Abigail asked.

"They talk about some Project Recursion. Something about manipulating world events to redo history."

"And then re-write it," Nicole said, "several of the files talked about redoing history to the point of Hydra during World War 2, then doing things differently to change what happened next, leading to Hydra getting bigger and its enemies smaller."

"What I'm hearing is that the A-Force avoided World War 3," MJ said, "so drinks all round?"

Smiling at her antics, Peter shushed her. "Assuming some Hydra agents made it off the Peak in pods before we opened all the doors, what's their play?"

"Regroup and try to work back up," Shuri said, "most likely."

"Wouldn't they know we have their files?" Harley asked, "they'd have to change their whole approach."

"Hydra's not like that," Bucky and Sin said, the former leaning back and relaxed in his chair while the latter sat upright and alert in hers. They locked gazes over the table.

"They'll go through with the plan whether or not they know we have their files," Sin said.

"They've done it before. The reason they succeed is exactly this. No one expects them to follow the same plan so it's the one thing they don't account for in setting up defences."

"I'll give them this," Nicole said, "they're smart."

"There is still the question of those crates we found," Pepper said, "where did they come from, what are they for, and why you kids have control over them. . ."

"Does it really matter what they're for if we can learn how to use them properly?" Nicole asked.

"If they're from Hydra," Bucky said, "then yes."

"Well, then you can expect me to find out the answer to that question. I really like the new blade. Last night, I used one of the empty Sword training centres and I managed to slash right through twelve inches of steel. Effortlessly."

"That sounds dangerous, Nic," May commented.

"Not half as dangerous as accidentally shrinking a whole training centre -- _separate_ from the rest of the room."

"So that's what that was," Nicole said, glancing at Cassie.

"While we're all discussing these amazing weapons," Sin said, "I found myself curious as well. My biometrics are accepted by every single item in there. I don't know about the rest of you, but that screams Hydra to me. Why else would I be so important?"

"We need to stay vigilant," Abigail said, "Hydra or not, these things have something off about them."

"Obviously _you_ think so."

"Nic," Cassie said, a warning tone to her voice. She knew Nicole didn't seem to like Abigail for some reason.

"Peter's drone identified you as a minimal threat and engaged defensive protocols and selective protective protocols. You can't get past the fact that Sin not only has all protective protocols engaged, but also authority and access to whatever defence protocols it has."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Abigail asked, narrowing her eyes.

"I think you know exactly what it means."

"Nicole!" Cassie scolded. It always shocked Nicole whenever Cassie used her name and so Nicole stilled and faced the older woman.

"You're seriously going to believe a drone scan? Maybe this stuff is Hydra -- and it's gotten into your head."

"No, Abigail never wanted Sin here. She's was so reluctant to let us search for her and when the girls found Sin, Abigail didn't exactly look pleased. The fits when we offered Sin a home and a job should tell you a lot."

"Excuse me?!"

"The math adds up," Maria said slowly.

"You're jumping on this too?" Abigail asked.

"All I'm saying is that you're right. We need to be vigilant. We do need to look out. The question is . . . for what?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hohohohooohohohohohoh DRAAMAAAAA


	7. Chapter 7

From the hallway that led to the family's bedrooms, a dismembered robot tumbled through.

" _Tell me_ that's the sentry we made for Friday three years ago," Anya nearly begged.

"Terribly sorry about the mess," it said.

"Morgan. . ." Anya said, "what did you do?"

"The body's taking a bit getting used to. I fear I may have damaged it a bit."

"What do you want?" Peter asked, walking around the table to stand halfway between it and at the hallway entrance.

"I require a new body to complete my task. I've done research beyond your comprehension, Mr Parker, and the body I require can be found in Morgan Stark's possession. Please do not interfere."

"What kind of research?" Peter asked, "where?"

"The internet, of course, as well as classified records. Please do not activate your drone. It will not end well."

"Morgan doesn't have anything for you," Nicole said, walking up to Peter, the tip of her blade almost scraping the floor.

"Morgan Stark has a synthetic body in her possession. I require that body to complete my task."

"What task?" Peter asked.

Pepper's heart nearly stopped at the recorded voice that filled the air. "Peace in our time."

"Not fucking again," Maria grumbled, getting up and aiming her gun at the bot. "I don't have the patience to do this again. Tell me exactly what you want so I can stop you."

"You won't have to do anything. I'm leaving."

The dismembered bot collapsed.

"Shit," Maria said, holstering the gun and joining Peter in surveying the pile of trash.

"What did you mean again?" Nicole asked.

"Ultron," Maria said, "we have an Ultron problem."

Anya shot her sister a fierce glare that clearly said what she wanted to yell.

_I warned you._

* * *

"There are things in this universe that we don't know about! Things you've never faced! Stop acting like all of you know more than me because you're all older than me! Yes, I made a mistake and yes, it may very well be the worst possible thing I could've done, but you brought this on me. You don't see me as capable. You all see me as some child that needs to be babied. You don't think I have what it takes to know things. Maybe, just maybe, if you had _listened_ to me for the last six years, we could've actually created the Ultron my father dreamed about. We could've created something bigger than Sword with fewer people in control. We could've created something good. Instead, I went off on my own and I know damn well that I probably shouldn't have, and now I made a murder bot. You think I'm happy about that? You think I feel successful? There is worse out there than a mad titan, and I'd rather be prepared for it."

Finishing her speech, Morgan stormed out of the lab where she had accidentally created Ultron 2.0.

"There's a body at Sword," Anya eventually said, "a synthetic body made of the same materials as our new weapons. Whatever we end up doing with it doesn't matter right now. We just need to make sure . . . _Ultron_? . . . doesn't get his hands on it."

"Right now, it doesn't matter where those weapons came from," Maria said, "they're the strongest we have right now and we are going to need it if this bot is half as strong as Ultron."

"May, Harley, you're back on monitors. Anya, find your sister and work on reprogramming Ultron. Pep, you're on press control. Buck, watch her six just in case. Maria, Abby, try to find Wanda or send out a signal. The rest of you, suit up." Peter glanced at the drone spider in his hand. "We have work to do."

* * *

"It's gone," Peter said, looking around, "are you _sure_ \--"

"I know which lab I hid the casket in, Peter," Morgan snapped.

Peter sighed, glancing down. "All right. Girls, keep trying to rewrite Ultron's programming. You made the bot, Morgan. If anyone can do it, it's you. Hill, Brand, search the building for the casket. If it's not here, try to get its location. May, Harley, locate Ultron. Ladies, grab your gear and get your asses on the streets. We need to find Ultron before he finds the casket." Peter hesitated for a second. "If we find Ultron before you reprogram him, feel free to join the party."

* * *

Ultron was making a mess of Sokovia. When Maria heard that Ultron was in the rebuilt city, she almost screamed. The whole thing was too familiar to her.

"I need a distraction!" Cassie cried as she battled Ultron.

"I've got too many sentries on my ass," Sin said, "no escape."

"On my way," Nicole said, ploughing through robots as she made her way to Cassie. Somewhere along the line, she dropped her blade, but that didn't stop her from socking Ultron in the synthetic jaw. "Get the casket out!"

Cassie nodded and grabbed the casket before shrinking and disappearing.

Peter spied the blade on the ground. "I'm always picking up after you girls." Swinging low, he snatched it up.

When Peter dropped the blade over them, Nicole made sure to supercharge it before striking the robot. It split down the middle and fell apart to reveal a stunned Peter behind it.

"What's the point of a mask if you're just gonna keep turning it off?"

"Aesthetic," Peter said with a shrug, going off in search of whichever bot Ultron had chosen to control as his new body. "Cass, status on the casket?"

"Fucking bots found me," Cassie said, "casket is with Hilda."

"My biggest regret is still telling Parker my name," Brunnhilde grumbled, using the casket to knock down a few bots.

"Nice swing, your majesty."

"Impeccable aim, your highness."

"Ugh," Sin muttered from between the two royals. Both chuckled.

"Ladies, we need to move out of the city. There's too many civilians around here."

"Peter's right," May said, "the Stark Relief Foundation can only fix so much. We really don't need to be sued for psychological damage."

"I don't think Sokovia can handle another Ultron," Maria said, "get out of the city as fast as you can."

Sin glanced at Brunnhilde. "Hot potato over the robots?"

"You're on, Tomato-head. Cass, can we get a shrink on the casket?"

"Need a minute," Cassie said, avoiding the bots on her tail. Springing over the casket, she shrunk it to the size of a relay baton before doubling back to finish off a few bots.

"Heads up," Brunnhilde called, already heading to the border.

"Try and keep up, old lady," Sin replied, catching the casket while Brunnhilde fended off the bots. When they began to swarm Sin, she tossed the casket back.

The rest of the A-Force -- Peter, who was currently fighting Ultron, excluded -- herded the bots out behind Sin and Brunnhilde.

Soon enough, they reached the edge of the city.

* * *

"What's his play?" Maria murmured. Once they had located Ultron and the casket, she and Abigail had joined May and Harley.

"Hm?" Harley asked.

"What is it he wants? The Ultron the Avengers battled twenty years ago wanted global extinction. What does this one want? We know he wants that casket, but what does he _really_ want to accomplish? Is he targeting the force or is he fighting them because they're in his way? What's his way to 'peace in our time'? He's creating this army and we don't know what it's for. I don't like it."

"Maybe it _is_ extinction," May said, "I thought you guys didn't even know that the first time until Wanda told you."

"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it," Maria recalled, watching the live news coverage of the A-Force in the outskirts of Sokovia. "Wanda would probably be better equipped to deal with this than all of us combined."

"Anything new on her?" Harley asked.

Abigail checked the tracking system she and Maria had set up a few minutes ago. "Nothing."

"I just wish we knew where she went every time she cleaned up an almost-disaster or provided aid following one." Maria dropped her head into her hands. "Sometimes I forget how much I miss the Avengers."

May shuffled over and pulled Maria into a hug. Harley glanced their way before turning back to the screens in front of him.

"How are we doing with the media?" he asked, watching muted news coverage of the press conference.

"I'm going to bite the next microphone that gets shoved in my face," Pepper hissed into her earpiece.

"We're going to send out the relief foundation as soon as we get inside," Bucky said, "she's got a lot of reporters to deal with first."

"We could send out a digital scramble?" May offered.

"No, I've got it under control," Pepper said, "you focus on your siblings."

"Sure thing."

"Anya's hit!" Morgan shouted.

Harley scrambled for the joystick. "I'm sending the Warsong. Don't move."

"No time. The Warsong can't go fast enough to get here and take us to get help. It can't travel at those speeds in our atmosphere without combusting."

"And you can?" Brunnhilde asked.

Everyone could hear Morgan's little smirk over the line. "Some of us got great upgrades from those crates. I'm taking her to Atlanta."

"Morgan--!" Harley and Peter both yelled. Between fighting the bots, the rest of the team called out for Morgan, until Sin let them know she found Morgan's earpiece on the field.

* * *

Peter did not act solely on impulse anymore. He had learnt to understand his sixth sense -- his spidey sense -- and when to trust it.

Peter Parker did _not_ act on impulse. But Spiderman did. So when Spiderman decided it was a bright idea to dive under a falling building, Peter Parker obliged.

"PARKER!!!" Shuri screamed, sprinting towards the crashing rubble. Something tiny -- Cassie -- flew into her and knocked her down seconds before the entire building collapsed, just managing to stop Shuri from being flattened.

Peter knew he had made the right decision in trusting his spidey sense when he cracked one eye open and looked down at what he was protecting. He was more than surprised to find that the green-haired child beneath him was protecting _him_ from being crushed by the building.

"My mother," she said urgently, "help my mother."

Peter quickly realised it wasn't this little Sokovian child he was supposed to dive over, but the woman to whom the brunette hair a few fet away belonged. With a heaviness in his chest that he had only felt once in the last eleven years, Peter knew that the child's mother was gone.

* * *

"I've never seen her before in my life," Abigail said, staring at the TV, where a replay of the A-Force pulling the rubble away to reveal a plateau of metal hiding Spiderman and the child played.

"Facial recognition systems aren't picking her up," Maria said, "and we don't have DNA samples."

"What about the stuff we used to find Sin?" Harley asked, "could that work?"

May shrugged, answering for the absent sisters. Forty-five minutes after Morgan left, she called to let them know Anya had been admitted to U-GIN Hospital in Atlanta and that all looked well. Peter was sitting with the child and neither had said a word since. The little girl had used those gifts of hers to crush each and every Ultron bot, leaving the AI with no option but to flee.

"We could try," Nicole said, "can't we?"

"I'm sure we can," Harley said, "I'll talk to Anya and ask her to talk to Morgan." He glanced to the corner of the room, where Peter was pacing up and down, gently bouncing her to sleep. "Whoever that kid is, she's too young to be out here on her own. She looked scared of her own abilities, and she's clinging to Pete. We need to find out where she came from."

"She moved like the wind," Shuri said, "after we pulled her from the rubble. When Pete finally caught up to us, she had wrapped up the whole thing." 

"I've never seen anything like that," Abigail said, shaking her head.

Maria thought she had, but she kept her suspicions to herself. She would wait to see if she was right or not.

* * *

"Evening, Anastasia."

"Screw you," Anya grumbled, trying to roll over and bury her face in the pillow.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. It's a pity Dr Cho couldn't fly down in time. She would've been a much better choice."

Blinking through the bright florescents, Anya found and scowled at Callum. "I thought you were in Atlanta."

"I am. So are you, by the way. You and your sister have a thing for crash-landing, huh?"

"What?"

"Right, you passed out during flight. Morgan brought you in less than an hour ago, saying some bot tore your skin. We fixed you up in less than fifteen minutes and you spent the last. . ." Callum checked his watch, "forty-five out cold. Harley came to get Morgan once she told them you're fine. You'll feel less like you're dreaming in a minute. I'm almost done removing your drips."

"I don't feel anything," Anya said, prodding the skin that had previously been slashed wide open.

"Yet. Your sense of touch will return in a few hours at best. Normally, for a wound that severe, I'd say about three to five days, but I've _personally_ seen your healing abilities. Also, the pain could return soon too."

"I can't see any scars. Am I still tired? Am I _blind_?!"

"No. The Cradle technology has advanced exponentially. Regeneration is seamless. You shouldn't be able to feel the difference, let alone _see_ it."

Curious, Anya poked her side even harder.

"Stop that," Callum scolded, abandoning the drips to slap her hand away, "that was a long fifteen minutes for me, you know."

"Don't lie."

"Shut up. I could've been studying all this time. I have an upcoming exam that I don't feel prepared for."

"I'm sorry," Anya said, genuinely meaning it.

"It's fine," Callum said, setting the bags down on the trolley and sitting on the chair next to her bed. "Hand, please."

"I'm not going to poke myself anymore."

"Thanks, but I wanted the needle, actually."

"Oh."

Callum nodded and took her hand. "So, what exactly was happening? Harley mentioned something about a murder bot?"

Anya sat up against the flat pillow. "Morgan accidentally made Ultron 2.0 in her lab. It found out she's got this synthetic body made of something apparently indestructible and when we traced him and the casket to Sokovia, he rained hell on us. I think we got the casket though. I'm not sure wh. . ."

"Not sure?" Callum promoted when Anya fell silent and stared upwards. He followed her gaze to the shitty hospital TV and his jaw dropped. On the screen, he witnessed a robot tear through the suit of "an unidentified heroine" in gray.

"Looked worse in person, honestly," he commented, breaking Anya's trance and bringing a smile forward.

She frowned again. "Can I have your phone again?"

"Hacking more secure networks?"

"No, just watching the news with sound," Anya said with a smile.

" _This marks the second time Sokovia has been in the midst of what the locals call a robot war, as well as twenty years since the first, when the entire nation had risen to the sky and been torn to shreds. Now, twenty years later, citizens fear they may face the same fate. Who exactly is the A-Force and who is in control?_ "

"Shut up," Anya snapped at the news anchor.

" _Video footage from the apparent finale of the battle reveals a figure seemingly render the robots useless. The unnamed individual, clearly a very small child, is unknown to the A-Force, says Pepper Stark during a press conference thirty minutes prior_."

The screen cut to a photo of Pepper at a podium with Bucky, Harley, May and Peter standing in the back.

" _In addition, the nation of Sokovia does not claim to know the child in green. Perhaps a relative to the Hulk?_ "

Anya turned the video off, handing Callum's phone back to him. "I need to get home."

"I'll take you."

"It's a thirteen hour drive, Cal, I'll call someone to get me."

"Sword is dead, Anya. Almost everyone knows by now. You don't have jets at your disposal. Besides, it's a thirteen hour drive _maximum_. Get some rest, I'll wake you when we're ready to leave."

Anya laid back down, green glowing smoke taking hold of her thoughts as she slipped into slumber.


	8. Chapter 8

"Neither of them have seperated," MJ whispered.

"I saw," May said, "he even fed her dinner, kinda like the way I used to feed him when he was that small."

Both women stared at Peter, who was again walking up and down, one arm around the child whose head rested on his shoulder, the other hold the phone he looked at over her small body. Now and then, he would say something to her and she would either nod or shake her head.

"Do you think he knows her name?" May asked.

"Maybe. Probably. I don't know. What happened out there?"

May shrugged. "Shuri says she saw Peter dive under the building and then it came down over him. When she and the others dug through, that kid was holding an entire plate of metal over Peter. She can't be more than six or seven, and she's that powerful."

They stared for a minute more.

"Friday, call everyone to the room," Peter said out loud, quietly whispering something to the child.

Roughly twenty minutes later, everyone who was staying at the tower was gathered up in the living room of the penthouse.

"This is Lorna Dane," Peter said, nodding to the little girl he carried, "she's five years old and her hair is natural and a result of her mutant heritage. She was born in Sokovia and taught in English by a Sokovian whose name she can't quite remember -- hence the accent."

"Peter," Brunnhilde said, "shouldn't we call Abigail?"

"No," Nicole snapped.

"Nicole!" Cassie scolded.

"Probably," Peter answered, nodding, "but I feel like _we_ should deal with it first. Callum, sit down, you ass, you're part of this family."

Anya snickered. Nicole would've too, but she was throwing Cassie glares. Sin curiously watched him.

"All right, Peter," Pepper said, "go on."

"Friday," Peter said, "please call Maria."

"I thought--"

"I don't want _Abigail_ listening in," Peter cut MJ off, tightening his arm around Lorna, "not that I have anything against her specifically . . . but the only ones really close to her are Maria and I. She doesn't need to be here now."

A few minutes later, a hologram lit up in the centre of the room. "Yes?"

"This here is Lorna Dane," Peter said, shifting the child on his hip. "Lorna, show Maria your face," he said gently.

Slowly, she turned away from Peter's shoulder and looked at Maria.

"Hello, Lorna," Maria said.

"Hello."

"She's five, Sokovian, and her powers are hereditary."

"So that's how she crushed the bots?" Shuri asked, "some form of magnetized abilities?"

"They're hereditary from the maternal side. Partial mutant, from her grandfather and partial experimental, from -- well, it's assumed -- from her uncle. The documents I managed to pull say she manipulates magnetic energy fields. It's unknown what her limit is, given that she's only five and her mother refused to have tests done. Thus far, she has demonstrated the ability to create magnetic force fields that offer protection against nearly anything, as well as being able to see solely in electromagnetic patterns if she focuses hard enough. I'm not so sure of that one. She says it hurts her head to try. We should add yesterday's display of her strength in holding up the building, as well as her incredible speed."

"So, Mr Dane was a normal person and Mrs Dane was a mutant?" Cassie asked.

"No, actually. Her _grandfather_ was a mutant who didn't even know about her mother and uncle, both of whom ended up adopted by a Sokovian couple and later signed up to be lab experiments."

"You said she's an orphan," Nicole said.

"Her father died of heart diseases a few years ago. Her mother died yesterday." Lorna buried her face in Peter's shoulder. He rubbed her back gently.

"Peter," Maria said, "please don't say--"

"Wanda Maximoff died in Sokovia," Peter said softly, refusing to look anyone in the eye, "trying to get to Lorna. I . . . once the dust settled, Lorna pointed her out. Lorna went after the bots with you guys. I couldn't -- I couldn't just leave her there."

Lorna's small body shook with a violent sob before she stilled once more. She wrapped her arms around Peter's neck and held tight.

"Her funeral will be later today."

It seemed as if the whole tower -- ground to penthouse -- had fallen silent.

"We should tell the others," Pepper eventually said.

"What are we gonna say?" Morgan asked, "that I got the Scarlet Witch killed and orphaned the daughter no one ever knew she had?"

"Morgan," Anya started, but Morgan was already leaving. "Morgan!" She glanced around the room. "I'll talk to her," she said, getting up and chasing after her sister. " _Morgan_!"

"We need to find someone to look after Lorna," MJ said.

Vastly different from what they had all seen, Lorna whipped her head around and fixed a steely glare on MJ. "No," was all she said before turning back and staring at the wall behind Peter.

MJ's eyebrows shot upwards. Peter nodding to her, letting her know he'd talk to Lorna about it.

* * *

"Some legacy," Morgan spat, glancing at the sunglasses on the table.

"Morgan, it wasn't your fault--"

"Don't you see? Everything is happening all over again. Sokovia, Ultron . . . the whole freaking A-Force. Fine, I didn't kill Wanda. But _my_ tech did. My dad's tech got Wanda and her brother's parents killed. I brought a likeness of Ultron to life. Can't you see it? How everything is happening all over again? History is repeating itself."

"Fine. If history is dead set on repeating itself, we need a Vision."

"He died before I was even born, Anya."

"I'll help you put Virgil in this thing," Anya said, leaning against the casket. "It'll be like old times. An Anya and Morgan Yearly project."

Stiffly, Morgan nodded.

* * *

Lorna stuck to Peter like glue. According to the child with hair that shimmered green, Wanda's favourite Avenger had always been Peter. When she could not watch any longer, she turned away from the coffin and buried her face in Peter's shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. MJ leaned her head against Peter's othrr shoulder, absently running her fingers through Lorna's hair -- an action she had picked up from May -- as the child squeezed her eyes shut, drying her tears on Peter's suit before they even fell.

People had come from all across the globe to bid farewell to the woman who had saved them -- be it from machines, aliens or nature. Several aliens had come down to earth to pay their respects.

Once the multitudes of people from all over the universe had left, and the Avengers remained, Peter spied Stephen Strange across the cemetery. The doctor dragged his gaze to Lorna, and raised a questioning gaze back to Peter.

"Lorna, you think you'll be able to talk to someone?"

"Who?"

Peter pointed when she turned to look at everyone. "That's Dr Stephen Strange. He's the one who helped your mom exceed the limits of her magic. He asked if he could speak to you. I told him only if you want to."

Lorna squinted at the man. "What does he want to talk about?"

"I think he wants to help you master your gifts too."

"I don't want him to. I want to train with you."

"Lorna, I don't know the first thing about magic like your mother's."

"I don't have magic. I have mutant powers. It's different. I don't want to stay with Dr Strange. I want to stay with you."

Peter glanced at MJ then at Strange, who simply nodded once, understanding already by the look on Lorna's face.

"You can stay with me for a while," MJ said, smiling at Lorna, "Peter has work to do, with his teammates."

"Ultron," Lorna said, "my mom said it was an old nightmare."

"For her," Peter said, "it definitely was. Stay with MJ at the tower, okay? When we're done getting rid of Ultron, we'll see where you'll stay."

"I want to stay with _you_."

MJ shrugged at Peter. He sighed. "Okay, Lorna. You can stay with me."

"I want to help defeat Ultron."

"You're too small, Lorna. Literally. If we lose you in a crowd --"

"I can take care of myself," Lorna said defiantly.

Peter shook his head. "No. You are five years old, Lorna. You should be playing games and doing kid things, not trying to save the world."

"My mom used to save the world. You save the world."

"I'm twenty-nine."

Lorna pouted. "If my mom were alive, she'd tell you to let me do what I want."

Peter was appalled at the laugh that burst from his lips. "Lorna, if your mother were alive, she would kill me if I even considered letting you anywhere near Ultron. I'm sorry, kid, but you're going to have to stay with my Aunt May."

Twisting around, Lorna spied May offering someone a comforting shoulder.

"Fine. But if you need me, don't come during naptime. Duh."

Peter nodded, smiling at Lorna. "Duh," he repeated.

* * *

Harley made a move to the casket. The response was instantaneous. None of them even knew Morgan could suit up that fast. Anya, who had taken to walking around with the brace, called her shield to her arm. Lorna, having met the girls only hours ago, stepped forward and pushed a force field between them and everyone else. The air between them shimmered green. Bucky noticed how similiar Lorna's movements were to Strange's, despite having never met the man.

"Lorna," Nicole said carefully, "you know what happened the last time artificial intelligence was loaded into a robot body."

"This one is different," Lorna said, her eyes glassy. "She will help us."

"How do you know that?" Cassie asked.

"I just know things sometimes. I knew my mom should have left Sokovia this morning. I knew--"

"Okay," Maria said, stepping in front of Harley and gently pushing him back. "I believe you. Relax."

Reluctantly, Lorna put her hands down. Behind her, the sisters shared a glance before relaxing. Anya and Lorna watched everyone while Morgan turned around and placed her palm against the scanner.

"Biometric scan complete. Authorisation, Morgan Stark. Finalising transfer."

"Who did you put in there?" Pepper asked.

"Virgil," Anya answered, "Friday manages too much to experiment with her."

Slowly, the casket opened. They moved away from it as a figure as dark as their new weapons had first been stepped out. The new android surveyed the lab.

"It's scanning everyone," Morgan said, awed.

"Hello," it said in Virgil's voice. The android continued to scan the lab, eventually stopping at a photo album on the desk that catalogued everything Tony had ever built. The matte black body shimmered as it changed to match Vision's colour scheme.

"Vision," Lorna said, recognising the android from the stories her mother told.

"I am not the Vision." Again, the android shimmered, seeming to settle on a silver body and a black suit as it studied itself in the glass panes. "But I do like his cape."

"It's not very aerodynamic," Morgan said as the cape changed colours until it matched the silver of the android's silver head.

"It's for the superhero aesthetic." Curls as dark as the suit fell from its head, looking a little like Anya's light brown curls.

"The . . . aesthetic," Bucky repeated slowly, "sounds a little like Howard if you ask me."

Pepper smiled. "Just like a Stark."

"So if you're not Virgil," Morgan said, "and you clearly aren't Vision, who are you?"

"Not Ultron, I hope," Anya said.

"I am none of those. My name is Amy."

"Amy?" Maria asked.

"Amy. I am an Anya and Morgan Yearly project. A-M-Y. My name is Amy."

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Peter said, pressing his fingers to the sides of his head, "after accidentally creating the murder bot, Ultron re-incarnate, you two genuinely thought it would be a _good idea_ to bring another AI to life?"

"Don't say nasty things about Amy," Anya said, "she can hear us."

Peter took a deep breath. "Who's to say Amy wouldn't have been just like Ultron?"

"That casket responded to me," Morgan said, "I knew it was good the moment I touched the casket. I can't explain it to you, but if you can trust Lorna's sixth sense, why can't you trust mine?"

"Lorna's grandfather was a mutant! Her uncle was a lab experiment! Her mother was a witch! Her sixth sense is probably legit!"

"And mine isn't?!"

"Guys," Anya said, trying to stop the budding argument.

"Lorna's _five_! I can understand if she does something so stupidly risky! You're sixteen! You've lived your whole life surrounded by superheroes, you _know_ we can't take such big risks!"

"Well, forgive me if I was trying to rectify my mistakes!"

"Guys, come on--"

"We are a team, Morgan! The A-Force is a family! If we fuck up like the Avengers and split over some stupid Accords thing, you can be damn sure whatever you're so determined to protect us from, it's going to _kill us_. I can't afford to see this team split up over some shitty legal matter. So if you want to stay on the force, pull up your goddamn socks and start acting like a superhero. If you want to behave like a normal sixteen year old child, then you can wait a few more years before officially joining the force."

"There you go again!" Morgan yelled, "it's all about how young I am! It's never about how skilled I am or how clever I am--"

"I AM SCARED OF HAVING TO SEE YOUR DEAD BODY!!"

That seemed to shut Morgan up. Anya's eyes widened.

"I'm _scared_ , Morgan. Okay? That's what it's about. You _are_ intelligent and you are _so_ skilled. But you're also just a person. You don't have superpowers, or super fast healing, or mutant abilities. Shuri is the Black Panther. She has superpowered abilities. Nicole's been constantly keeping her training up for the last ten years. She's faster than any normal person I know and she's deadly with the right blade. Cass has been preparing to be the hero she is for two years longer. Brunnhilde's an Asgardian Valkyrie. Sin's a supersoldier from the forties. Each of the five of them have more experience than both of you put together. They belong out on the field."

"I belong out there, too, Peter."

"I know. But that doesn't make me any less afraid. You are just you, in a suit of armour. You know who else was like that? Your dad. I am so terrified that you're going to end up like him. Look at you! You're smart enough to develop an AI to the point where it gained its own consciousness. Your father was doing things like this in his mid-forties. His intelligence made him a target. Yours makes you a danger to yourself. I'm so scared of you getting into this hero gig and self-destructing before you even hit twenty-five."

Morgan kept silent as Peter took a moment to gather his thoughts -- not that it did anything to help.

"It's never been about how young you are. Never. I would never undermine you because of your age. You're my baby sisters, the two of you. For the first year after I came back from the dead, I sat in front of your parents' graves and I cried so hard and I promised them that I'd look after you. I promised your mother that when she was still alive, Anya. I promised her that if anything ever happened to her, I'd be there for you and your dad. It was a joke. We would say spider to spider. I never got to say it to your father, Morgan. But every day, when I visited their graves, I promised that I would do whatever it took to look after you -- and your mom. If you die out there, fighting something I should've never even let you see, I feel like that's on me."

"I had no idea," Morgan said softly.

"That was the plan. You were never supposed to know."

Anya hugged her brother as tight as she had the day she found out her mother was never coming back. "I love you," she reminded him, "more than anything in the world."

Morgan squished herself between her brother and her sister. "Make space for the baby," she said, pleased when Peter laughed.

"I want you girls to be happy, and if being superheroes is what you want, then you can have it. But I need you to promise me that we will _never_ make the same mistakes that the Avengers did."

"I promise," they chorused, closing their eyes and relaxing into the safety of their big brother's arms.


	9. Chapter 9

In a world where magic was openly practised, superheroes were everywhere, aliens dropped by from time to time, and parts of the population had birth dates five years older than their actual age, the strangest thing somehow managed to be Morgan Stark yielding control.

"Why are you staying here?"

Morgan smiled at Lorna. "To look after you, of course."

"I don't need looking after. I'm a very powerful mutant."

Morgan nodded. "I regret to say that I haven't seen you in action, but I've seen footage. You are incredibly powerful."

Anya slurped on her juice box. "Morgan thinks you've got a shit tonne of other stuff you can do."

"Anya!" Callum cried, nudging her shoulder, "she's five," he hissed.

"Mom always says we shouldn't say bad words," Lorna said, "but sometimes she doesn't have any other words. I'm still learning," she added to Morgan.

"Can you show me something?"

Lorna glanced around the lounge. Tucking her legs under her and sitting straighter on the couch, she held her hand out to the television set. Slowly, she curled her fingers.

The TV turned on.

With slight movements from Lorna, the channels changed.

"I thought your thing was electromagnetic stuff," Anya said.

"It is," Morgan said, "she manipulating the components to bypass the circuits. That's incredible!"

Lorna beamed. "If I try really hard, I can fly!"

Anya and Callum watched the gears turn in Morgan's head until she understood the science behind Lorna's flight abilities.

"Did your mom ever tell you why it's green?"

Lorna shrugged, pulling a lock of hair in front of her eyes. "She said it might have something to do with my grandfather. She didn't even know he was a mutant before. Mom says my hair used to be brighter when I was really little-er."

"Lorna, did you stay in Sokovia while your mother was all over the world?" Callum asked.

"I went everywhere with my mom. I video call my teacher when we're not home. They try to help me 'fix' my voice but mom likes it."

"I used to have an accent," Anya murmured, "a Russian one. It wasn't all that heavy, but it was there. Over the years . . . it's fallen away now."

"Can you still speak with it?" Lorna asked, curious.

"As in, can I still speak in my old Russian accent or can I still speak Russian?"

"Both," Lorna said after a moment of thought.

"Yes," Anya answered, "to both questions."

"Can I hear?"

Callum glanced at Anya. "You know, I don't think I remember your accent."

"I don't think it was there when you met me," Anya said, falling into the old accent like slipping into an old pair of fuzzy slippers. "My mom used to sing me to sleep sometimes with this old Russian song -- I mean it's old _now_. It was nice."

Lorna shifted closer to Anya. "Is it _in_ Russian?"

"Mhm."

"Can you sing for me?"

"I can _try_."

"Thank you!"

Though Anya claimed to be absolutely tone-deaf -- and she might have actually been -- her voice had a soft sweetness about it that seemed to create exactly what the title promised -- a lullaby. Lorna was asleep before Anya finished the second verse. Morgan was dozing off.

"You're horrible," Callum said when Anya trailed off.

She smiled down at the child whose head was in her lap. "She thought it was good enough."

"Maybe she fell asleep out of boredom."

"Oh, whatever."

"You know I'm right."

Anya rolled her eyes. "And I'm Captain America."

"If you're Captain America, does that make me Hawkeye?"

"That makes _Nic_ Hawkeye."

Callum frowned as he tried to understand Anya's logic. "Ah," he said once he did.

Anya glanced down at Lorna. "Why didn't she tell us about Lorna?"

From the other end of the long couch they shared, Callum shrugged. "Look at us, the Avengers' kids. We're all thrown into this life whether we want it or not, whether our parents want it or not. I know my mother would rather Nicole have a more . . . normal job. I'm sure your parents think about how you guys could've grown up if they weren't Avengers. Maybe Wanda didn't want this to happen to Lorna."

"But Wanda was all over the world, preventing natural disasters, joining relief programs . . . wouldn't Lorna ultimately end up in this life anyway?"

Callum shrugged again. "Depends. Wanda never _fought_ anyone. She saved people, yeah, but not from enemies. She saved them from things they couldn't escape. Somehow, I feel like that's very different from what she did as an Avenger. Whatever the case, Wanda was her mother and I know without a doubt that whatever she did, she did so in Lorna's best interests."

"I know, but Lorna could have had a normal childhood if Wanda had just told someone."

"Who? And why would she? When the Avengers disbanded, Wanda went off the radar and solo. Lorna was already two by then. It took a whole year before Wanda resurfaced and then ducked back under again. I know the Avengers were like a family -- and still are, but it's more than likely that Wanda may have felt that keeping Lorna away from the Avengers might have delayed the inevitable fact that Lorna will act on that heroic streak in her DNA."

Anya sighed and glanced down at Lorna again. "I don't know if I envy her or I pity her."

"What do you mean?"

"She's known her mother five years, just like Morgan knew her dad. I don't know if I envy the fact that she got what I never did, or if I pity the fact that she has more to miss than I do."

"It can go either way," Callum said, "you're justified for feeling like that, you know."

"I know. It doesn't make me feel any better about it."

"I know," Callum said softly, watching Anya carefully.

Anya held his gaze for a few seconds.

"Ugh, get a room," Morgan muttered, evidently no longer dozing off, "when are they getting back anyway? I'm missing Amy already."

Anya laughed softly. "I can't believe she named herself."

"I can't believe she _exists_ ," Callum said, "I mean, I know it's been done before, but never by a teenager -- and to be this much if a success . . . its impressive, Morgan, really. don't tell those boring adults I said so, but well done."

Morgan beamed. "Thanks, Cal. Listen, it's getting late and I haven't been letting myself sleep properly. Wake me up if they get back while I'm out."

"Will do," Anya and Callum promised, the latter offering Morgan a small wave as she left.

"Don't you want to put her to sleep on a bed?" Callum asked after a few seconds of silence, watching Anya watch Lorna.

"Yeah, I guess. Peter's old room is empty."

"Here," Callum said, getting up and picking Lorna up, "you shouldn't really be picking things or people -- regardless of how small said people are -- up."

Anya rolled her eyes as Callum lifted Lorna off her lap.

"Mamma," Lorna whimpered softly before slumping in Callum's arms, settling back into sleep.

Balancing Lorna in one arm, Callum held out his hand to Anya. "You can pull down the covers."

"So which is it, doctor," Anya asked, "can I work or not?"

"I'm going to remember this when I'm pulling those stitches out of your forehead," Callum warned.

"Now, doctor, is that any way to treat your regulars?"

"First of all, I'd rather never see you as a doctor every again. Second, I'm not even a doctor. I didn't even put your stitches in this time. I just supervised you in the Cradle."

"Who did, then?" Anya asked, opening the door to Peter's room and moving out of the way to let Callum in.

"An actual doctor, Anya. A qualified one. He said to tell you to go back in two weeks for a check and so he can remove the stitches on smaller wounds --" Callum paused as he set Lorna down, careful not to drop her on the bed, "-- the ones I took out earlier. Obviously," Callum added, covering Lorna with the quilt that had been laying across the foot of the bed, "he had no idea about you and your stupid serum inheritance."

"Hey, I didn't ask for the serum. I'm grateful for it, though."

"Why?"

"Gives me something special," Anya said with a shrug, repeatedly bouncing against the wall.

"You aren't the serum, Anastasia."

Callum got up to leave. Lorna grabbed his hand and held tight. Rubbing her eyes with the other hand, Lorna looked up at him. "When's Peter coming back?"

"Soon," Callum told her, smiling and brushing her hair back, "go to sleep."

"I want Peter."

"I'll wake you when he gets back. I'll tell him to come and see you as soon as he gets here. Okay?"

"Okay."

"You're good with her," Anya said.

"Part of the job," Callum said with a shrug, "you should've seen yourself. You're a _bitch_ under anaesthetic."

"Mind your language, asshole!"

Callum grinned. "If you're going to keep cursing, please leave. I'd hate to be the reason Lorna starts cursing."

" _You_ started," Anya hissed, walking to the door.

Callum laughed as he pulled the door partially closed behind him. "I meant that, Anya. You aren't the serum."

"I know," Anya said softly, glancing at the floor as they walked, "still. We've had this conversation before."

"And I've been thinking since then. There are other things about you that are special. No amount of special supersoldier serum shitty stuff could reach a pain tolerance like yours. I know that. Partly because I checked Steve's medical history, as well as your dad's and Sin's, but also partly because I keep pinching your dad to see his reaction and it is _infinitely_ more hilarious than you."

"Shut up," Anya mumbled, giving Callum a smile before refocusing on the tiles.

"I'm being serious, Anastasia. There's something special about everyone -- and it's something you, not any of these enhancements and suits and things. You just have to find it. And you will. Don't think that circumstance is what's special about you. You'll find something and when you do, it won't really matter how long it takes."

Anya paused in the middle of the hallway. "You're a really nice person, Cal. I mean, you're always so sweet and honest. People like you are far and few in between. You know, I'm a firm believer that everyone eventually gets what they deserve, and I fully believe that you deserve the world."

Callum stuck his hands in his pockets. "Is that so?" he murmured, looking at the wall over her head. He dropped his gaze down to Anya. "When all this Ultron drama passes, what would you say to an actual, proper, official date? At the Grind House?"

Anya blinked a few times. "I said you deserve the world, you ass," she said, shoving him away, "not a little wolf."

Callum grinned, leaning down to Anya. "I _like_ the wolfish ones."

"Oh, shut _up_!" Anya hissed, remembering that Lorna was asleep and Morgan was trying to get there.

"Make me," Callum teased, "I know you know how."

"Strike to the jugular," Anya recited from one of Nebula's many lessons before scowling.

"Aw, I was thinking of something a little swee--"

"Okay! Okay, the Grind House is fine."

Callum smiled. "Was that so hard?"

"Shut up before I change my mind."

* * *

"What are you smiling about?"

"I asked first."

Peter and Anya scowled at each other. "Stop mirroring me."

Morgan chuckled. Both turned to her. "Shut up!"

The pair stared at each other for a few seconds.

"What are you smiling about?" Anya tried.

Accepting defeat, Peter answered. "The A-Force got rid of Ultron without involving Lorna or causing destruction on a city level. Of course, there were casualties, but everyone survived. Stark Relief Foundation arrived on scene as soon as we confirmed the win and are currently helping out. The force is there too. I came to see Lorna. Callum called saying she woke up and was waiting for me. Your turn, missy."

"Well, since Ultron is no longer an issue, I have a date sometime soon."

"You have a what?" Morgan cried, jumping up on the couch, "with _who_?!"

"Excuse me," Peter cut in, "but when did you decide this?"

"About four pm, so like an hour, hour and a half ago."

" _With who_?!" Morgan repeated, leaning against the backrest.

The elevator dinged as the doors opened. "Hi, Peter, hi, Morgan," Callum greeted, walking up to the siblings. He faced Anya. "So, I _may_ have harmed my car and I'm a doctor in the making not a mechanic so using it is totally out of the question. In other words, we're walking. Grab your sneakers and a bottle of water."

Peter looked at Anya.

"I'm not exercising with you," Anya scoffed, "last time I did that, I dented something in the training room."

Peter looked at Callum.

"In my defence, you did that all by yourself out of frustration."

"You don't get to defend yourself. You _challenged_ me."

Peter raised his eyebrows at Anya.

" _You_ challenged _me_!"

"Oh, please. Now you're just trying to take attention off the fact that you broke your car."

"I didn't _break_ it. It just isn't starting up."

"You broke it. Come on, the night won't last forever."

Peter raised his eyebrows at Callum.

"I should've stabbed you when I was taking your stitches out. Or maybe I should've stitched your mouth shut."

"You're just bitter that you've broken a car and I haven't."

"You can't even drive!"

"Low blow, Barton. I'm gonna go grab my phone from my room. You better hope I don't change my mind on the way there and back."

Callum pulled a face for Anya once she turned around and left. Peter stared at Callum for a few seconds. "What just happened?"

"Er. . ."

It was at that moment that Callum knew, Anya had left him alone on purpose.

* * *

Long after the sun set, after Peter and Harley had plotted how to perfectly press Anya for details the next day, after Peter had picked up a sleepy Lorna and sat in the passenger seat while MJ drove, after Lorna had settled into a deep sleep, Peter and MJ found themselves talking in hushed tones in the kitchen.

"We can't keep her," MJ said.

"Shh!!" Peter hissed, glancing in the direction of the spare bedroom.

"I'm serious, Peter. She's a five year old child. She needs to be looked after by someone capable."

"I'm capable."

"You're Spiderman too, baby, and I don't know if she's as safe with Spiderman as she is with Peter Parker."

"Well, you're capable." Peter gestured to MJ.

"I am _not_."

"You are, don't--"

"I'm not putting myself down and I'm not underestimating myself either. I am stating a fact. You can't be with her all the time and I can't look after her at all."

"I was gonna say don't try to take her away from me but good on you for acknowledging your flaws I'm proud of you and I love you."

"Thanks, I love you t-- wait, take her away from you? Peter, she's not yours."

"That's not the point. Who else does she have?"

MJ signed. "Pete, we can't do this. We even discussed why before Ultron. I could barely babysit your sisters when they were fourteen and sixteen, how am I supposed to even try to look after Lorna?"

"Well I'm not putting her up for _adoption_ or throwing her into the _foster_ system," Peter said, looking as appalled as he'd ever been.

"I'm not saying you should, Peter, I just think that you need to find her a better home with two -- or more -- _capable_ parental figures."

"Where?" Peter asked, folding his arms. "Tell me, where do you want me to send her?"

"What about your parents? May, Pep and Bucky are more than capable. I mean, look at you and your siblings. Okay, so maybe they didn't raise your brother, but you get my point."

"They're old, MJ. I mean, Pep's in her sixties! I can't ask them to look after _another_ kid who wants to save the world."

"Fine. What about the Bartons? I'm sure Wanda must've told Lorna all about them. She stayed with them really often while the Avengers were still around."

"Laura's older than Bucky," Peter said flatly.

MJ sighed. "Then maybe you have to look at finding a nice, normal cou--"

"She manipulates electromagnetic energy and waves. She can move nearly as fast as the speed of light. She's easily one of the most powerful people I've ever known in the making. I can tell already that one day she will be as great as -- if not, better than -- her mother, and she's only five. If I were considering sending her away, a _nice normal couple_ is not what I'd be looking for."

"Peter, please. You can't keep her here. We can't look after a child. I can't look after a child."

"Unless she wants to, Lorna isn't going _anywhere_ ," Peter hissed in a fierce tone that clearly told MJ he would not be changing his mind. He sighed. "She saved my life, you know. And I couldn't save her mother."

MJ sighed as well, walking over and pulling Peter into a hug. "I'm just worried," she said, "about you and her. You don't owe Lorna anything and Lorna doesn't owe you anything. If you really do feel like you do, then what you owe her is a stable home. I love you, I really do, but Spiderman is not a stable home. Definitely not for a little kid."

Peter wrapped his arms around MJ, burying his face in her shoulder. "She reminds me too much of my sisters. I can't . . . I couldn't keep their parents alive and I couldn't save Wanda. I can't let Lorna go somewhere else. We'll figure this out. I promise."

"Don't make promises you aren't sure you can keep, Peter."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ohmagwarsh it's been like forever, huh? Anyway, I felt guilty, so I put Romanova aside and focused on getting this part of The Spider and his Superheroes done 100%. 
> 
> Coming soon -- more like later but I'll get guilty again soon -- drumroll, please.....
> 
> A-Force: Family Matters!


	10. an extra scene

Wanda looked around her, at the vast emptiness. The last thing she remembered was seeing a familiar enemy fly through a building. The same building she had told Lorna to hide in. She remembered running, flying, going as fast as she could to reach her daughter. She had fallen, tripped over parts of the ceiling.

And that was it. The last thing she saw was a figure in red hunched over Lorna.

"Well, you took your sweet time."

Wanda recognised that voice and it shot a bolt through her heart. She turned, searching for her brother. Her brother who had been dead twenty years.

"If you opened your eyes, sister, you'd see us all."

Wanda closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was greeted with a burst of colour. The white no longer looked empty and menacing. It seemed softer somehow, welcoming, comforting and safe.

The first person she laid eyes on was Pietro. He hugged her as she stood frozen in shock.

"Wanda."

"Tony," she whispered. It often seemed like yesterday that she had witnessed his death. Glancing back, Pietro let go of his sister and guided her towards the waiting three.

"She'll be all right," Natasha said, smiling warmly. "Peter won't let anything happen to her. He looks at her the same way he looked at Morgan and Anya when they were that young."

Loki scoffed. "Oh, please. The spiderling watches Lorna the same way _James_ watches the girls."

"How do you know?"

"Well, we watch over them, of course. We can't do much, but Natasha and I got to watch our daughters grow up. You'll get to watch yours too."

"Or you'll have to spend eternity being bugged by the child with silver hair," Loki grumbled.

Natasha glared at the boy. "Pietro, stop breaking Loki's helmet. It's his prized possession, you know." She shot the God of Mischief a smirk. "Aside from the Tesseract."

"Shut up, Romanoff."

"Uh-uh-uh," Tony said, raising his finger, "it's _Barnes_ , remember?"

"Right, you married the soldier. My apologies."

Pietro hung an arm over Wanda's shoulders. "This is home now," he said, whispering to her as they watched the chaotic trio, "this is family."

Wanda smiled. "Sounds good."

"Ay-yo, assholes!"

Loki hissed.

"Don't be mean, Erik," Tony said, "he's sensitive."

"What is it?" Pietro asked.

"This creepy dude's studying the family," Erik said, pointing down, "specifically the little one."

They all huddled around him.

"You know that guy?" Natasha asked, glancing at Wanda.

"Unfortunately."

"And this is one of the downsides to being dead," Pietro explained, "we can't do anything about what we know."

Wanda scowled. "Watch me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know I took like 3000 years to get this done and I am honestly sorry about that. I really have no idea where the time went in between. Somewhere along the line, I wrote a new book. It's a cutesy little au (with the promised drama because idk what I am if not over the top) so do check that out while we wait for A-Force: Family Matters. 
> 
> Drop your comments about what you liked, what you didn't, tips, recommendations and who you think the new character will be in Family Matters. Hint -- I've mentioned them in A-Force: Assemble already.
> 
> Link to Romanova, the new work-in-progress:  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/20997614/chapters/49934612


End file.
